Yeah, I'm sure that if they suddenly stop filing patents, they'll have absolutely no trouble continuing to build microprocessors. It's not like their competitors will patent things (taking advantage of our brilliant new First To File system) and then take Intel to court for every penny they have...

"Intel follows in the footsteps of HP and IBM, who also fund open source software collaborations with university researchers"

IBM is consistently #1 on that list too

Companies almost have to own patents these day; for defensive reasons if nothing else.

The problem is patent trolls are immune to this kind of defense.

Hardware patents are not a huge part of the madness. Design, business process and software patents, however, usually are.

As nano-tech advances and replicators become more commonplace, hardware will face the same issues with patents and the seeming absurdity of patenting an 'obvious idea'.

> As nano-tech advances and replicators become more commonplace,

I think we should leave science fiction out of the legal system. It is already overburdened dealing with problems we have and doesn't need to deal with the problems we may someday have.