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You are assuming that no one pays royalties, and I don't blame you because that's also implied in the article, but I have hard time to believe that companies li
by takeda 9y ago
You are assuming that no one pays royalties, and I don't blame you because that's also implied in the article, but I have hard time to believe that companies like Google or Samsung would do that.
I think when Nuance purchased Swype all they wanted is the patent, and simply didn't want to spend resources on developing Swype when they could get money through royalties. The original Swype preferred to be sold to OEMs, but OEMs typically want to make their Android version unique, so might actually prefer to implement their own keyboard with that functionality. This plus the fact that Swype quality degraded since Nuance's purchase makes me believe that they just went the route of permitting other companies for using their patent in exchange for royalties.
- ggg9990 9y agoIn HN parlance, once they shut down their own app do they become a... patent troll?
- serf 9y agomost patent troll firms just buy portfolios worth of patents without the extra baggage of the company that created the patent. trolling comes down to their use of patent ownership and how they (ab)use it to make cash.
- takeda 9y agoI don't know, in my view a patent troll is a company that managed to obtain a patent for something trivial that most people would not even think of obtain a patent for. For example: - displaying originating city/state based on area code of a calling number - swipe to unlock the phone - rounded corners and is trying to get money from anyone who uses it Typing through swiping is a bit more innovative. To be honest, I think there shouldn't be any patents on software. That field is thrives on building on top of work of others, and things change quickly, so patents are actually stifling innovation. At least if software patents can't be eliminated they should be much much shorter.