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This is the most sensible commentary I've seen yet. Fits the "America is pretty much screwed" articles making the rounds these days. It's actually pretty damned
by squidbot 15y ago
This is the most sensible commentary I've seen yet. Fits the "America is pretty much screwed" articles making the rounds these days. It's actually pretty damned depressing that $20 billion dollars was spent on a legal game rather than awesome R&D.
- int3 15y agoThe money's not gone, it's mostly just transferred from one party to another -- in this case, from Google to Motorola's shareholders. Of course, many man-hours are wasted in the legal wrangles, but it certainly doesn't add up to $20 billion dollars of lost productivity.
- philwelch 15y agoYou can say that about practically any transfer payment. The cost of a transfer payment is opportunity cost. If Google invested 20 billion dollars in R&D, we'd have 20 billion dollars of R&D done in addition to someone, somewhere, having that 20 billion dollars to spend again.
- Confusion 15y agoGoogle bought a lot more than just patents.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- ryanhuff 15y agoThe worst thing is that Google is now invested in the problem by $20 billion more than it was previously. The more invested U.S. companies become in patents, the more difficult it becomes to make change.
- mayanksinghal 15y ago$20 billion? Did I miss a vital piece of news?
- wazoox 15y ago$12.5 billions for Moto, $4.5 billions for Nortel, that's actually more like 17 billions.