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Google was started based on a patent owned by Stanford (PageRank). This was kind of bad for Google, though, as Stanford ended up making hundreds of millions of
by mkl 7y ago
Google was started based on a patent owned by Stanford (PageRank). This was kind of bad for Google, though, as Stanford ended up making hundreds of millions off them for providing an exclusive license. The patents have only just expired this year.
- tompccs 7y ago"Bad for Google" - you're making the opposite point that you think. In practice it doesn't matter who owns the patent, what matters are the licensing terms. Google make hundreds of millions in a day now, and PageRank was probably irrelevant to Google's core revenue streams within a few years.
- mkl 7y agoAm I? If Google had owned the patent, they wouldn't have had to pay Stanford to license it, saving loads of shares/money, and the licensing terms would be moot.