Sometimes it reduces to - your ethics or your job (Score 1)

You can, as so many have stated above, be fired for just about anything. One of the clearest reasons for termination is insubordination - refusal to follow clearly stated orders. Just as people of conscience once refused to discriminate in hiring or pay of minorities or to do any work associated with war, you can take a moral stand against patents by refusing. The ramifications will doubtlessly be both immediate and definitive - your termination for insubordination. Patents are legal and few have moral qualms about them. The likelihood of an outcry by your colleagues or the public at large is near zero. So it comes down to a personal choice, your ethics or your job. Jay