You jest but a Boeing patent on a specific satellite manuever had the effect of decommissioning a satellite.
back
3 comments
The full story here: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Boeing_Patent_Shuts_Down...
Perhaps patents will be the last thing that saves human-driven cars.
You can get an injunction against self-driving cars that can do the newly patented three-point-turn (its not prior art because now it uses a COMPUTER system!), but you can't stop a driver from doing it!
Patents definitely foster progress by the looks of it.