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Assuming this does nothing to change the trend of whatever executive decided this was how to turn around some metric. Most likely profit, we can start calling i
by xfour 9y ago
Assuming this does nothing to change the trend of whatever executive decided this was how to turn around some metric. Most likely profit, we can start calling it officially a leading indicator of a march towards irrelevance. See Yahoo! I've always wondered if IBMs largely touted shift to consulting to maintain profits was just putting off the inevitable. Does anyone see IBM as cutting edge technologists?
- abtinf 9y agoI work at IBM. In terms of technical leadership, what you are interested in? IBM invests enormous amounts of money in open source projects and IBM Research. And for the last 24 years straight, IBM has earned more patents than any other company (it’s not even close).
- albertgoeswoof 9y ago> And for the last 24 years straight, IBM has earned more patents than any other company (it’s not even close) That's not a great measure of technical leadership. Shows they have good lawyers though!
- abtinf 9y agoWhy isn’t that a good measure of technical leadership?
- cannonedhamster 9y agoBecause any old chump can file a patent request and get it approved. There's a reason patent trolls exist.
- abtinf 9y agoRestating your argument: there have been cases in which patents of questionable quality have been granted which recognize questionable rights; there exist entities who act in bad faith to acquire patents for the purpose enforcing those questionable rights; therefore, all patents are of questionable quality in the possession of entities who act in bad faith to enforce questionable rights. This is self-evidently fallacious reasoning. It also drops the context that tech companies in aggregate spend tens of billions of dollars per year on R&D, creating the incredible world of technology, industry, and human flourishing in which we live.
- albertgoeswoof 9y agoThe point is more that creating patents doesn’t add value whatsoever, nor is it representative of adding value in some other way. The only people that see a net gain on patents are lawyers, and big corps- that’s why they spend billions on them.