Legal rambles I'd never imagine in the space industry. If your satelite is under orbit and needs to be corrected, you can't do it because a company might have a patent on the procedure to correct the orbit.
So, you splash the bird and milk your insurance company for a payout (rates go up), all because of a scobble with Boeing. $$Millions down the toilet.
This is like me needing a special heart surgery technique and the doctor has to stop in the middle of the operation, go make a few phone calls to make sure he can us a special widget tool, gets denied, and then I flatline.
An emergency patent revokation/suspension should happen by USPTO to save that bird! Engineers are so smart just to have their hard work get trashed by the legal system.
