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Wow. Straw man galore. Edit: feel like I should expand one this. None of the opinions you mentioned are consistent across HN, nor are they supported by all of

by pitaj 9y ago

Wow. Straw man galore. Edit: feel like I should expand one this. None of the opinions you mentioned are consistent across HN, nor are they supported by all of the same people. Not even a majority of HNers support most of those opinions. In fact, I think the only one of those that HNers do tend to support in majority is "But enforcing patent rights - that's bad."

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untog 9y ago
You're equating HN and Silicon Valley there, and I'm not sure that's right. I also don't think the "Silicon Valley attitude" is the opinion of every person who lives in the area, just those who run it. For all the complaints we see on HN about, say, Uber, it's still very much on top in SV and held up as a huge success story and model for other companies. For the record, I think the OP was being hyperbolic. But there is an element of truth: Silicon Valley (rightly) criticises the things that hold it back, but is largely quite happy to stay silent about things it takes advantage of.
jay-anderson 9y ago
I don't think even the majority of agree that enforcing patents is wholly bad. It's a bit more nuanced than that. Some of my personal problems with patent enforcement of the top of my head: (1) it often isn't encouraging creators to keep creating (the patents being enforced have been sold or assigned away from the individual) (2) patents are being used as a stock pile for insurance against other companies suing them (3) non-practicing entities (patent trolls) are generally the ones bringing law suits (4) many patents we hear about appear low quality (obvious, prior art, do it on a computer/network, etc.) After seeing issues like the above over and over again it feels like the system isn't working to do what it should. I'd love to see patent enforcement to help fund the work of inventors and push the overall state-of-the-art forward, but it really feels like that's not what's happening right now.
- mojomark 9y ago
  All of the "problems" you state are valid, but targeting patent enforcement to fix the problem is like trying to stiffle a food poisoning epidemic by changing the way people eat instead of fixing the source of the problem which is in the food prep. Patent trolls are succesful because of the millions of worthless patents issued (i.e. scope that actually does overlap prior art, such that people think they have broader protection than they actually have). The other reason is that people are filing patents (and getting them granted) based on concepts that seem viable in principle, but which they haven't actually distilled to practice (ahem - Magic Leap). All of these issues can be greatly mitigated by reinstituting (1) the rule for inventors to actually demonstrate the technology they're patenting to the USPTO. 1. https://www.uspto.gov/custom-page/inventors-eye-what-are-current-guidelines-submiting-models-your-patent-application https://www.uspto.gov/custom-page/inventors-eye-what-are-cur...
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by pitaj 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

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untog 9y ago

You're equating HN and Silicon Valley there, and I'm not sure that's right. I also don't think the "Silicon Valley attitude" is the opinion of every person who lives in the area, just those who run it. For all the complaints we see on HN about, say, Uber, it's still very much on top in SV and held up as a huge success story and model for other companies. For the record, I think the OP was being hyperbolic. But there is an element of truth: Silicon Valley (rightly) criticises the things that hold it back, but is largely quite happy to stay silent about things it takes advantage of.

jay-anderson 9y ago

I don't think even the majority of agree that enforcing patents is wholly bad. It's a bit more nuanced than that. Some of my personal problems with patent enforcement of the top of my head: (1) it often isn't encouraging creators to keep creating (the patents being enforced have been sold or assigned away from the individual) (2) patents are being used as a stock pile for insurance against other companies suing them (3) non-practicing entities (patent trolls) are generally the ones bringing law suits (4) many patents we hear about appear low quality (obvious, prior art, do it on a computer/network, etc.) After seeing issues like the above over and over again it feels like the system isn't working to do what it should. I'd love to see patent enforcement to help fund the work of inventors and push the overall state-of-the-art forward, but it really feels like that's not what's happening right now.

mojomark 9y ago
All of the "problems" you state are valid, but targeting patent enforcement to fix the problem is like trying to stiffle a food poisoning epidemic by changing the way people eat instead of fixing the source of the problem which is in the food prep. Patent trolls are succesful because of the millions of worthless patents issued (i.e. scope that actually does overlap prior art, such that people think they have broader protection than they actually have). The other reason is that people are filing patents (and getting them granted) based on concepts that seem viable in principle, but which they haven't actually distilled to practice (ahem - Magic Leap). All of these issues can be greatly mitigated by reinstituting (1) the rule for inventors to actually demonstrate the technology they're patenting to the USPTO. 1. https://www.uspto.gov/custom-page/inventors-eye-what-are-current-guidelines-submiting-models-your-patent-application https://www.uspto.gov/custom-page/inventors-eye-what-are-cur...

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