4 ms·

@sama: is one of the intentions for this group to acquire patents, so that you may be able to use them in defense for YC companies?

• sama 11y ago
  No--all IP developed is free to the world, so we wouldn't be able to use it defensively.
  • mehrdada 11y ago
    It is possible to structure it as "patent granted to everyone, but expires the moment they bring up a lawsuit against us or any of our licensees" to do doubly good for the world.
    • eCa 11y ago
      Then it would no longer be free.
      • mehrdada 11y ago
        It's not public domain, for sure, but it is free, for some definition of 'free', similar to GNU GPL.
  • anseljh 11y ago
    Well, everyone would be able to use YC Research's public outputs defensively as prior art.
• myth_buster 11y ago
  Apparently not. YCR is a non-profit. Any IP developed will be made available freely to everyone. We’re not doing this with the goal of helping YC’s startups succeed or adding to our bottom line.
• math 11y ago
  you could allow free use of patents under a license that requires the entity doing so to also allow free use of their patents. If you believed the patent system is largely counter productive (as I do), this would be an awesome way of trying to address this a constructive way.
• deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
• vasilipupkin 11y ago
  what YC could get out of it ( besides making the world a better place ) is very good knowledge of the capabilities of potential entrepreneurs. Imagine one of these researchers then founding a startup. Funding that would be a lot less risky, so that's quite a bit of edge