[winterismute]

This is very true. However, they could still lose a court case if they failed to prove that the design they shipped benefited by information that was confidential - even when the information was about what "not to do". Still, this is probably among the hardest case to bring on and win for a company, imho.

[eridius]

Patents aren't confidential information. In fact, that's kind of the whole point of patents.