Yeah I remember reading about that Electroneum patent. I'm not quite sure what they are going for there, but I would guess that you are correct.
Just look at Monacoin.
The Monacoin team is totally anonymous under the pseudonym Mr. Wannabe. If they violate a patent how is a government going to take legal action against them?
Also, it's not illegal to program software. It's illegal to use it. Who do you go after? The miners/witnesses creating blocks? They are all over the world. It's even harder to crack down on than file sharing like Pirate Bay. As well all know, torrent sites get attacked and shut down all the time, but they can't be stopped. Blockchain is that times 1000.
In the end, it is just a case of governments and corporates to display false control to those who are ignorant, which is the majority. Well, that is how I would state it to myself so I don't get irritated by the headlines. haha.
As for Electroneum they are not saying much since they are in patent pending last I read, it will be a Hybrid system that will enable instant payments and micropayments , obviously not using steem I assume maybe it is just an Auth exchange which might not require "mining" on a side chain of sorts , I don't know the tech well enough to even speculate but won't let that stop me, they would need to still maintain the security and anonimity so will be cool to see how they have decided to execute it.
Thank you for all the info, I will be sure to keep your thought process in mind when reading all the fluff on the topic.