In an email to us, Peter Detkin called the comparison to the mafia "ridiculous and offensive." Detkin wrote: "We're a disruptive company that's providing a way

In an email to us, Peter Detkin called the comparison to the mafia "ridiculous and offensive." Detkin wrote: "We're a disruptive company that's providing a way for patent-holders to recognize value that wasn't available before we came on the scene, and we are making a big impact on the market. That obviously makes people uncomfortable. But no amount of name-calling changes the fact that ideas have value." NO, ideas by themselves are meaningless. Take it from a guy who loves coming up with new ideas for products and businesses, but isn't so good at the execution part (that's me). Ideas have value only when they are part of a shipping product. The more popular that product, the more valuable the idea behind it becomes. The sad truth is that right now there are a lot of patent holders who aren't even using most or all of their patents, and instead they just use them to make money off others or sue them. If patents aren't completely abolished (by far the best outcome for the world and innovation), you should at least not be allowed to flaunt your patents unless they are already part of your shipping products. And even in that case, you should be allowed to license it for only a few short years, like 3-5 years - not decades. And ideas should under no circumstance be patentable.