All this will accomplish is pushing people to buy similar brewers made by other companies who do not have such idiotic devices in place. Surely as a business they could have foreseen that their patents would one day expire, and not to base their entire business model under the assumption that it wouldn't.
Really its just suicide on their part if they ever try to sell such a thing. People will just buy other models that don't have it in it. It's not like they will go out of business over competition making kcups, it's just that their profits will slow down, and they might need to lower prices a bit to remain competitive or come up with a new business plan.