4 ms·
Looking at the names I assume these companies dont have a lot of patents. Small companies with few/no patents have strong motivation to join (the possibility o
by mooneater 15y ago
Looking at the names I assume these companies dont have a lot of patents.
Small companies with few/no patents have strong motivation to join (the possibility of limited protection for free) and nothing to lose by doing so, since they have few or no patent rights to assert.
Big companies with lots of patents have little to gain, since there are a very small set of patents on the list. They have lots to lose: the inability to use their big investment in IP in a competitive way.
So why would holders of large patent portfolios want to join this? Chicken, meet egg.
Btw, I detest sw patents too.
- Mithrandir 15y agoThe hope is that if enough of these companies sign the pledge, so will the big companies; if they will or not remains to be seen. If several companies with a large enough patent portfolio signed it, I believe other companies might do the same.
- pg 15y agoThey all honestly hope to be big though. So it is a significant step for them to commit to something like this.
- mooneater 15y agoA more general scheme might be, pledge to not assert software patent rights, against any other entity who as also taken the same pledge. That seems less biased, more equally attractive to large patent holders.