Its good to remember that we don't know which, in what combination, or if any of the google patents have been actually included in the Current Google algo, but there is some evidence that an expert system seems to have been added, which IMO might be hilltop or a version of it. Evidence for this is seen in the sudden rise to prominence of directories, .gov and .edu pages.
But if they are using a different method of calculating
PR, such as the LocalRank Patent or Topic Specific Page Rank, then those are only affecting the
PR portion of the rankings.
LocalRank for instance simply modifies the existing relevancy ranking (which it calls oldrank) by selecting a subset of a group of results (100 has been suggested) and removing all links but one from the same Class C addresses before calculating a new ranking factor which is added to oldrank to get the new ranking. BUT and this is a big but, the forumula for adding these two together includes a multipying factor on both oldrank and localrank such that either could be dominant depending on what values are chosen.
I agree with CBP that the use of such patents should not be of concern to the average webmaster, but it may impact heavily on those who set up rings of sites on the same servers, those who host thier clients sites on the same server and interlink them for ranking purposes, etc.