Read the claims, not the titles. The title of a patent means nothing, from a legal sense. So while a title can be broad, the claims must be very specific.

The claims merely need to be specific enough to not conflict with other patents (excluding the so called "obvious" and vague notion of "been there, done that"). Design patterns in the general sense are patentable, unfortunately.

Everyone needs to do a search through the patent database sometime. You don't really know how much of a cesspool that system has become until you see the prevalence of patent trolling.

The Signal/Bullsh#t ratio of our patent system is perhaps a little better than the Legit/Spam ratio for emails. Yes, it really is bad on a par with that!

The reason more programmers don't do that is because it is incredibly risky in terms of legal liability. The simple fact that you even looked at the patent database increases the chance that you will have to pay three times as much in damages if you are sued. Groklaw.net's sidebar has links to a bunch of information on all of this, designed to bridge the gap between lawyers and geeks.

For this purpose, one can do a search in an area away from where they are working.