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They have the nuclear option -- refuse licenses of the in-pool patents to anyone licensing an out-of-pool patent. Most of the patents involved are unusable inde
by blasdel 17y ago
They have the nuclear option -- refuse licenses of the in-pool patents to anyone licensing an out-of-pool patent. Most of the patents involved are unusable independently -- you have to license a chain of predecessors.
There's a reason why patent owners just join the pool when they discover they're eligible for a nice easy income stream.
- DarkShikari 17y agoThis, by the way, is the reason why even non-litigious companies tend to accumulate huge quantities of patents: they serve as potent weapons against anyone attempting to sue them. Equally, it's why productless patent trolls are so dangerous: since they don't make any products, such patent portfolios are useless as deterrence against them.
- danbmil99 17y agoMPEG-LA can't do that because the pool has a rule of non-discriminatory licensing. That's one of the (flimsy) bases for their antitrust exemption.