Oracle have made subtle changes to the way that they advise you to patch an installation from the release of 11.2.0.2. The full gory details can be found here (My Oracle Support link - support contract required) but in brief:

• You are now advised to perform an out-of-line patch, however, you can do an in-line patch if you are short of space. However, this will delete the existing installation. Beware & take copious backups!
• The patch kit is a full installation - so you get  the latest patch kit and install it instead of getting  the base release and then patching it.
• Grid components must be patched out-of-line.

Cheers.