The problem with software patents is that any modestly sized chunk of code likely infringes on at least one overly broad patent that should never have been issued. Get a codebase the size of Linux and you're infringing thousands. Basically everyone in the industry is playing Russian roulette with a loaded lawsuit gun and we just hope the chamber is empty when the trigger is pulled. That's just a horrible system, and it's appalling that it's been like that for decades and nobody has fixed it.