Unlike copyright, patent is an anti-market force. A true copyright is a contractual agreement between buyer and seller, where patent is exclusively a state grant of monopoly. The patent is not an "attack" by the patent-holder, it is a distortion pooling pressure created by the state.

The process of mining is highly competitive. Monopoly protection in the use of efficient mining algorithms is a strong anti-market pooling pressure. Bitcoin is secured by people resisting anti-market forces. Resistance incurs greater risk when the miner is highly pooled and/or non-anonymous.

If people do not resist such forces there is no security in the money. As the threat level increases the consequence of patent violation becomes no more of a risk than mining itself. As such the impact of patents is inconsequential as it pertains to the security of the money.