Companies don't stop hiring, at least in tech. They can force out more expensive talent and hire in cheaper areas or get more junior talent. You could very well interview your potential replacement.
The need for maintenance is forseen, but it's generally deferred. There was probably a plan to do something every year or two, but they weren't willing to shut the beach down for a week or so. A second pipe would be absurdly expensive.
They might have better lawyers, but generally the big club of the government is the inevitability factor. Federal departments are basically immortal and have no profit motive to justify the continued budget.
This seems shortsighted by these companies. A jury trial is way more expensive and public with a chance of paying as much or more fines anyway. Sure it takes longer to get a ruling, but that seems like a small win.
The actual rules aren't too terrible, plenty of these garbage patents would be invalidated with any real scrutiny applied to them. The problem is that it's often cheaper to pay the settlement than the legal bill to fight, which is a more widespread problem that the legal system is too expensive and slow to be accessible to the vast majority of people. There's also a secondary issue that patent officers are too generous in granting patents, and reform would be great. The problem is they are overworked so they can't properly evaluate and research applications, and are encouraged to be overly permissive in granting patents.
That's not actually a solid defense as "fictional" characters that are obviously someone that exists can still be ruled libel. A common informal defense is to give the fictional person a small penis. It doesn't change anything legally, but it does require someone suing you to admit in court that they have a small penis.
What made Doctor Who great was Davie's writing. It was a good mix of monster of the week, massive story arc, and recurring characters with a monster of the week. Moffat wasn't quite as good, but was still respectable.
I don't mind RNG, I mind games that rely on it over proper design. Xcom has tons of RNG, but it's generally still possible to win most maps with proper strategy. Most roguelikes have this problem where any given run is impossible to win regardless of play.
AI chat bots are actually a useful workaround for shitty web uis now. When you don't know which icon is hiding the thing you want, you can just ask the AI to do it for you.
Companies don't stop hiring, at least in tech. They can force out more expensive talent and hire in cheaper areas or get more junior talent. You could very well interview your potential replacement.