I think, as I understand it, the OP's concern is that a patent is only as good as the courts say it is and so this can put the future of a company in the hands of someone who has no training or understanding of the technology whatsoever. It's a legitimate concern, especially for a small company because big companies often think they can violate a patent and just litigate the little company out of existance. Happens all the time. My particular company (small) was on the evil end of a patent law suit and thankfully the company survived even though it was found to be violating a patent (it wasn't) but the tricks these patent lawyers can come up with are unbelievable.