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There often isn't even any "investment" in patents. Richard Feynmann would describe how his superiors would just walk around the labs and say, so! who has some

There often isn't even any "investment" in patents. Richard Feynmann would describe how his superiors would just walk around the labs and say, so! who has some ideas we could patent? And Feynmann's fellow scientists would say, well, you could grab this nuclear reactor and stick it into a submarine to power it, but that's pretty dumb and obvious. "Nonsense!" replied the superiors. "Patent that right away!" I don't know how true it is that a lot of patents come just from employees sitting around navel-gazing in their free time and aggressive management telling them to write down those ideas so they can file more patents, but it seems believable that it would happen at least sometimes.

snarf21 8y ago
Yeah, that seems like the IBM (and others approach). The problem with 0 software patents is that any small player no longer has a window to be a first mover. Google and FB have thousands of engineers sitting around and if they could just duplicate the new idea without consequence there would be no reason to do their own research and no relief for the little guy.
nitwit005 8y ago
This is officially how the patent system at my company works. They just ask for patentable ideas related to what we've worked on.
pnw_hazor 8y ago
For tech startups, patents are very important for staking out their product space. Those first 3-10 patents can be critical for funding or exits strategies. A company that does not have patents around its core technology or products is worth much less than one that does have patents. If your ideas are not worth patenting (e.g., protecting) why should your investors keeping putting money in?
- gowld 8y ago
  That's voodoo perpetuated by VCs, not real value. 99% of granted patents wouldn't hold up in court. Look at the garbage patents Dropbox has, and and the fact that they haven't used those patents to sue competitors out of existence or licensing fees. https://patents.justia.com/assignee/dropbox-inc https://patents.justia.com/assignee/dropbox-inc https://patents.justia.com/patent/8855605 https://patents.justia.com/patent/8855605 including "logging into your account from your phone" https://patents.justia.com/assignee/dropbox-inc https://patents.justia.com/assignee/dropbox-inc
  - dahauns 8y ago
    >That's voodoo perpetuated by VCs, not real value. 99% of granted patents wouldn't hold up in court. The crazy thing is - the voodoo works: They don't even have to hold up! The threat of litigation itself and/or the patents being a bargaining chip in such litigations are enough. I mean, look at the 1-click example: It doesn't matter that many of their claims were deemed invalid years later, the damage (direct: expensive lawsuit, preliminary injunction, settlement; indirect: chilling effect) has been done.

snarf21 8y ago

Yeah, that seems like the IBM (and others approach). The problem with 0 software patents is that any small player no longer has a window to be a first mover. Google and FB have thousands of engineers sitting around and if they could just duplicate the new idea without consequence there would be no reason to do their own research and no relief for the little guy.

nitwit005 8y ago

This is officially how the patent system at my company works. They just ask for patentable ideas related to what we've worked on.

pnw_hazor 8y ago

For tech startups, patents are very important for staking out their product space. Those first 3-10 patents can be critical for funding or exits strategies. A company that does not have patents around its core technology or products is worth much less than one that does have patents. If your ideas are not worth patenting (e.g., protecting) why should your investors keeping putting money in?

gowld 8y ago
That's voodoo perpetuated by VCs, not real value. 99% of granted patents wouldn't hold up in court. Look at the garbage patents Dropbox has, and and the fact that they haven't used those patents to sue competitors out of existence or licensing fees. https://patents.justia.com/assignee/dropbox-inc https://patents.justia.com/assignee/dropbox-inc https://patents.justia.com/patent/8855605 https://patents.justia.com/patent/8855605 including "logging into your account from your phone" https://patents.justia.com/assignee/dropbox-inc https://patents.justia.com/assignee/dropbox-inc
- dahauns 8y ago
  >That's voodoo perpetuated by VCs, not real value. 99% of granted patents wouldn't hold up in court. The crazy thing is - the voodoo works: They don't even have to hold up! The threat of litigation itself and/or the patents being a bargaining chip in such litigations are enough. I mean, look at the 1-click example: It doesn't matter that many of their claims were deemed invalid years later, the damage (direct: expensive lawsuit, preliminary injunction, settlement; indirect: chilling effect) has been done.