As a general reply, since you three all used the phrase <i>submarine patent</i>, I'm fairly certain that term gets thrown around  in a misleading manner.<p>A submarine patent isn't just someone coming along and saying <i>I have a patent on what you're doing so stop it and/or give me money</i>. The technical term for that is just "patents", that's what they're for.<p>A <i>submarine patent</i> is a particular type of patent hi-jinx which is no longer possible in the US (though some may still be waiting to surface, from the time it was possible to create them):<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_patent" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_patent</a>