I feel stupid asking this, but isn't part of the point of a patent that you have to put the patent out there so that people can verify whether or not something has already been patented (and see other pertinent information such as when it expires and who owns the patent)? This seems almost like it would be done with the intention of making people accidentally infringe on patents so that they can be sued?<p>Edit: After re-reading the article, I see now (despite the odd choice of words to title it), this focuses on filings in patent COURT cases, not the patent filings themselves