3 ms·

Tech companies are hoarding patents, but they should be donating them

• arcanus 10y ago
  I'm not sure it's fair to attack IBM for trying to patent out of office emails. If they had attempted to use the patent against others, I would be immensely critical. But it strikes me as more likely that the patent was a defense measure to protect the company against trolls. While donating the patent sounds nice, isn't it absolutely the same outcome if a company keeps the patent and does not litigate with it?
  • pjc50 10y ago
    You can't know that they won't litigate it, only that they haven't. And it's always possible for that policy to change, or the patent to be sold, or even for IBM to go bankrupt and the patents sold to trolls to pay the creditors.
• divbit 10y ago
  In the last two paragraphs it states that IBM used to publish papers on its inventions to prevent others from patenting them. I have heard that recently, the law has changed to allow it to be possible to patent something within a year of its publishing. Maybe someone knows more about this - is this true? Seems like it would incentivize patenting if so, rather than publishing or dedicating to the public, as then people would just patent whatever someone else publishes.
• payne92 10y ago
  Like an arms race, this approach (formally dedicating to the public, effectively terminating the patent at the PTO) only works if everyone does it. Otherwise, it's strategic and prudent to have a patent portfolio, so you have trading cards and leverage if someone asserts against you.