<p>Actually these days the hangups with patents are internal in my company - unless I invent a lithium-cheese battery that lasts for 3 years and is edible afterwards, our own patent guys won’t file (patent chicken). In my field especially, where it’s all design work, ultimately you’ll step into something that Apple or someone else may have filed, may file, etc, and that’s all she wrote.</p>
<p>Ironically, the mechanical engineers designing the boxes and the RF designers doing the various antennae et. al. have far more opportunity to patent stuff than we software/human interface drones :(</p>