...some of these 'VIP' patents just seemed like the obvious thing to do if you were assigned to design that circuit/device - stuff that seemed to be right out of my textbooks...
I am of the same opinion. There are Web sites that one can search for and peruse patents for a certain application. I have seen plenty of patents that I cannot understand how they could be granted, meaning they were obvious application or derivation of earlier devices.
I am a joint patent holder. One of the start-ups I joined had our concoction patented for protection against competition and also because it looked good to investors. As it turned out, there was another patent filed on something similar, and much litigation ensued. The other guy never built anything; the way I understand it, you can even patent an "invention" that only exists as diagrams in a Vu-graph, and its working explained by hand waving. A prototype does not have to be submitted.
In our case, if I were the US Patent Office, I would have thrown out both our and their patents, saying that neither were really worthy. Everyone goes home. Nobody infringes on anybody. But, as it was explained to me, the US Patent never retracts its patent grants, as it means admitting that it did not know what it was doing. So, the two sides slugged it out in court.
In my own personal work with megacorps, I have had some accomplishments that I am proud of. These were treated as "trade secrets" and no patents were ever filed. The ones I was truly proud of were mostly algorithms implemented as embedded code. In talking with several colleagues in the same field but with different megacorps, they said the same practice was in place at their workplace. Although software is protected by copyright, I don't know how algorithms can be protected. So, absolutely no publication.
As an employee of a megacorp, any patent would be assigned to the employer anyway, and the reward to the inventor is just a small bonus, typically $1K. However, it looks good on the resume. For an analytical or algorithmic work, the employer usually will not let it get published. The more practical and of higher economic value, the more it is kept a secret. Hence, it is rare to see practical and immediately useful papers published in prestigious technical journals.
I have worked with some highly sophisticated systems, and in talking to the maker, wanted to know a bit more details on how they work, just out of curiosity. Tough luck! The hardware is pretty simple, but the required mathematical algorithm boggles the mind. They wouldn't say a word. Of course the guys who work on these could never publish nor claim credit for it even. If they move to another company and do the same kind of work, it would be a recipe for a legal disaster. Most of these guys are "employees for life" anyway. Their expertise is so focused, and the field so specialized that where could they go but to a competitor?
