So in the US all software development should stop because you might run into submarine patents. It seems such a sad state of affairs: a true deadlock.

There were some psychological tests that showed that under surveillance people behave differently, they self-censor, they act unnatural. I wonder how this applies psychologically to software development in the US. When everything you could write might infringe upon some patent, how much do you end up self-censoring ?

How much progress is lost because people are afraid ?