Smartphones are a really bad example. Those patents created an arms race between a small group of large tech companies. If you try to limp into that market you will get sued from every angle. The only winners are those who make pacts based on mutually assured destruction[0].<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Smartphone_patent_wars" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Smartphone_patent_wars</a>