[jp555]

It's not like copyright. Copyright is automatic, a patent requires expensive application, and even then it's only as good as it works in court. This is why the patent trolls choose venues for their actions that have a historical bias in their favour.

A patent by itself is not a very big moat to protect against competition; if you don't believe me just ask Samsung. The only way to actually turn a patent into force is to spend a gargantuan among of money on lawyers. I just think 99% of time that capital is better spent in other areas in the business. Spend it to get better at "running upstairs" - http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html for example.

Patents can be valuable as part of a business's competitive advantage. However, recently the damage caused by trolls using this as their only competitive advantage has made patent's negatives far outweigh their positives to the markets at large.