The entire software-patent idiocy will lead to a single vendor for each type of product (operating system, file system, email client, etc.) in the end, if the concept of software patents is not throw into the cesspool with the rest of the stupid ideas of the past.

I give it no more than a decade before we have either no software patents, or a government-mandated monopoly for each product type in each nation. The latter will, of course, lead to a situation in which Microsoft Windows US Edition cannot be installed in Japan under penalty of law, and it will be illegal to send email from Brazil to France, for instance.

End of game means end of profits for lawyers so far they have managed to not kill off an excellent source of nearly bottomless legal fees and since they run everything and make all the laws I assume the gravy train will not end.