Marketplace
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2006/12/22/patents_get_harder_to_come_by/
U.C. Berkeley professor Pam Samuelson says most of the time, companies just settle. They end up paying royalties for bogus patents.
PAM SAMUELSON: That’s actually a tax on all of us, right? We pay higher prices for the products and services that we deal with because people are paying off patent holders when those patents shouldn’t have issued in the first place.