It's probably too late for you in this case, but in the future, it's probably a good idea never to read patents. (not legal advice) That's the policy I keep -- I don't follow links with 'patent' in the URL, because it's much worse for you if you knowingly infringe.
For that matter, I don't even read paper publications out of places like Microsoft Research because of patent-related issues. Take a look at this, warning about an IBM publication: http://on-ruby.blogspot.com/2008/02/ip-police-line-do-not-cr...