If they are throwing money at patenting actually novel ideas, then they are using the patent system as intended.
If they are throwing money at the sort of ridiculous obvious patents that people here are complaining about, they are essentially funding an army of private investigators to go out and invalidate bad patents.
If they are throwing money at the sort of ridiculous obvious patents that people here are complaining about, they are essentially funding an army of private investigators to go out and invalidate bad patents.