I've often been told I should not read patents related to my work as it could result in a worse judgement against me if I were sued and found to be infringing. Unfortunately, it's so difficult to know if you're infringing that it doesn't seem worth trying to prevent reinvention.

It's a shame, but the idea doesn't seem to have worked out in practice.

Have you ever looked at patents to inform your ideas? As slavik81 says that's legally dangerous, but it's also typically useless.

I didn't say ideas behind patent system worked by any stretch of the imagination.

Fair enough!