Article has nothing to do with a "broken" patent system. The author is just relating a few, not-really-connected anecdotes.

Inventor patents device. Cheap knockoffs with production issues flood nascent market. Inventor licenses patent to company with more resources. Owners of another device resolve patent dispute by selling rights to another manufacturer. Author guesses that they will enter market too.

Where's the broken patent system here? Even if the US patent system is broken, this article does nothing to address it or even point it out.

The author mentions Xiaomi above the fold and notes how surprising it is that they are involved. Except that they are barely involved at this point. He only mentions them because they are Chinese and he tries to contrast the US and Chinese patent systems later.

Can we quit calling these hoverboards?