I've always thought of the screwed-up nature of our patent system is just evidence of how rich we are as a society, that we can afford such gross and stupid inefficiencies and still manage to make products.
The big players are engaged in MAD with their patents, but I really feel for the little guys who get tromped on with lawsuits as soon as they start to gain some success.
This American Life had a good story on this some time back, which basically showed how vulnerable small businesses are to "patent trolls".