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How “Patent Trolling” Taxes Innovation

76 points by cwan 15y ago

AJ007 15y ago
Lets talk about how the patent cartels suppress small companies in order to dominate the entire computer and mobile hardware industry.
- monochromatic 15y ago
  Patent cartel? Got an example of this?
  - georgemcbay 15y ago
    MPEG-LA?
    - nate_meurer 15y ago
      Put that question mark away, and add suppression of competing technology to the list of offenses.
    - monochromatic 15y ago
      Ok, that's a pretty good example.
bryanlarsen 15y ago
Notice this is a guest article, it isn't by the "freakonimists", Levitt & Dubner. Levitt & Dubner had a chapter in their book which was glowing puff piece about Intellectual Ventures. IV is perhaps the biggest patent troll of all.
- api 15y ago
  IV is known for its glowing puff pieces. I saw one once in the Harvard business review that stopped just short of actually giving fellatio.
- dmazin 15y ago
  It gives me great dissonance to consider Modernist Cuisine so cool and yet know that IV is a patent troll.
petegrif 15y ago
It would help if they characterized 'patent trolls' accurately. Their alleged behavior is after all the subject of the piece.
paulgb 15y ago
It would be an interesting (albeit expensive) experiment for some VC to start publicly and aggressively financing defence against patent troll attacks on their portfolio companies. If trolls are after settlements and the VC sends the message that they won't settle, trolls may leave their portfolio alone in the long run.
- petegrif 15y ago
  This strategy may work for those cases where the troll has a claim of questionable value but what about the cases where the troll holds a meaningful patent and has a valid claim?
  - paulgb 15y ago
    Then they're not a troll.
msg 15y ago
Don't waste your time. This is a pretty crappy article. It will be old hat for you if you've been following this area in any depth. Misleading discussions: the proportion of patents that are overturned compared to the number that aren't, what makes a bad patent bad, who files for patents, what is a patent troll, who are the patent trolls. Missing discussions: the distinction between software patents and non-software patents, the consequences of in re Bilski, the proportion of software patents vs non-software patents, the current misguided "reform" efforts in Congress, the nuclear war in the mobile industry, Google vs. Oracle.

76 points by cwan 15y ago

AJ007 15y ago

Lets talk about how the patent cartels suppress small companies in order to dominate the entire computer and mobile hardware industry.

monochromatic 15y ago
Patent cartel? Got an example of this?
- georgemcbay 15y ago
  MPEG-LA?
  - nate_meurer 15y ago
    Put that question mark away, and add suppression of competing technology to the list of offenses.
  - monochromatic 15y ago
    Ok, that's a pretty good example.

bryanlarsen 15y ago

Notice this is a guest article, it isn't by the "freakonimists", Levitt & Dubner. Levitt & Dubner had a chapter in their book which was glowing puff piece about Intellectual Ventures. IV is perhaps the biggest patent troll of all.

api 15y ago
IV is known for its glowing puff pieces. I saw one once in the Harvard business review that stopped just short of actually giving fellatio.
dmazin 15y ago
It gives me great dissonance to consider Modernist Cuisine so cool and yet know that IV is a patent troll.

petegrif 15y ago

It would help if they characterized 'patent trolls' accurately. Their alleged behavior is after all the subject of the piece.

paulgb 15y ago

It would be an interesting (albeit expensive) experiment for some VC to start publicly and aggressively financing defence against patent troll attacks on their portfolio companies. If trolls are after settlements and the VC sends the message that they won't settle, trolls may leave their portfolio alone in the long run.

petegrif 15y ago
This strategy may work for those cases where the troll has a claim of questionable value but what about the cases where the troll holds a meaningful patent and has a valid claim?
- paulgb 15y ago
  Then they're not a troll.

msg 15y ago

Don't waste your time. This is a pretty crappy article. It will be old hat for you if you've been following this area in any depth. Misleading discussions: the proportion of patents that are overturned compared to the number that aren't, what makes a bad patent bad, who files for patents, what is a patent troll, who are the patent trolls. Missing discussions: the distinction between software patents and non-software patents, the consequences of in re Bilski, the proportion of software patents vs non-software patents, the current misguided "reform" efforts in Congress, the nuclear war in the mobile industry, Google vs. Oracle.