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OK, if so, who is going to pay the $10k+ in costs to get each of these patents? Whoever pays to get a patent and not enforce it does society a service, but bear
by SoftwarePatent 15y ago
OK, if so, who is going to pay the $10k+ in costs to get each of these patents? Whoever pays to get a patent and not enforce it does society a service, but bears the cost themselves.
- scott_s 15y agoThey also do it defensively, to protect against someone else getting that patent and using it against them.
- artursapek 15y agoThe idea is own the patent for defensive purposes, not aggressive. "Patent pacifism," if you will.
- doron 15y agoThis line is repeated everywhere now, and it is hard to swallow. A deterrent is only useful if you employ it from time to time to demonstrate its power. If you have offensive capacity you will be bound to use it. Guns don't kill people, People kill people. Sure, but guns make it much easier, and by design, have the capacity for landing in the wrong hands.
- artursapek 15y agoA deterrent is only useful if you employ it from time to time to demonstrate its power. Are you suggesting people who own guns should kill someone from time to time so nobody will fuck with them?
- doron 15y agoAre you suggesting that this is not how guns usually get used?
- randallsquared 15y agoI'll suggest that. Over 50 million households in the US own 200 million or more guns, collectively. If these guns were usually used this way, the US would be depopulated by gun violence in a decade or two.
- artursapek 15y agoThank you, I wasn't gonna bother
- damoncali 15y agoI don't understand how one would defend their patented innovation without suing someone else? Or are you suggesting that the patent only be used as a counter-suit after being sued for infringement of a different patent? I mean, the whole point of a patent is to be able to sue people who are competing with you. How can that ever be defensive?
- rgoddard 15y agoUnlike trademarks, you can hold a patent without having to defend it. You are not legally required to use it. So the choice to use it is yours. The logic behind defensive patents is similar to creating nuclear weapons as a deterrent and the theory of mutually assured destruction.
- damoncali 15y agoExcept the superpowers with all the nukes routinely fling them at each other. Where is the deterrence? If IBM is not deterred by Microsoft's patents, why would they be deterred by mine?
- teach 15y agoI think you're mistaken about superpowers flinging nukes at each other. Only two nuclear weapons have ever been used in war, and that was 65 years ago.
- 15y ago