A primary aim of component-based software engineering (CBSE) is to benefit from the reuse of stable software components, in order to reduce production costs, improve system quality and achieve greater productivity. It is not surprising, then, that applying patterns to CBSE is an attractive goal, since patterns themselves are an expression of the desire to achieve benefits by reuse. We present an analysis of applying patterns to CBSE and show that there are significant challenges in reaping the benefits of patterns in blackbox development. However, by exploring the real motivations behind the use of patterns in software engineering, it is possible to apply certain patterns concepts and to achieve real benefit from doing so. We also show how the approach can be applied to other blackbox development approaches.