Linux, Patents and OSRM

This article has a good overview of the recent report commissioned by Open Source Risk Management. The report found 283 patents that could potentially be infringing, in the Linux kernel. Luckily, there were zero patents that have survived reviews in court and over 100 of them were held by so called “Open Source Friendly” companies. Microsoft does hold several. The part that I find interesting about the US patent system (at least what I understand of it) is that not knowing about a patent actually makes the infringement less costly for you, so it's actually better not to know. This is one reason OSRM is not releasing the details of their findings, as it would making the infringements (and infringors) “willing”. It now becomes a questions of risk mitigation. Is the OSRM insurance worth it vs. the chance of litigation. What do you think?
–jeremy