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Is the recent brood of patent related lawsuits something extraordinary? And if so what could be a reason for that? Economy crisis? Rise of smartphone/tablet mar

Is the recent brood of patent related lawsuits something extraordinary? And if so what could be a reason for that? Economy crisis? Rise of smartphone/tablet market? Or maybe the hi-tech industry was always like that, only no one from the outside cared about it?

podperson 15y ago
The light bulb, the telephone, the electrical power system, and the television -- to name a few examples off the top of my head -- were all fraught with lawsuits, and the "winners" were not necessarily the people you'd think were morally in the right. If I recall with the telephone it was literally a matter of who got to the filing desk first. The difference today is that the products in the center of the fights are all composed of a set of technologies each of which represents a bunch of inter-related fights. I guess the patent system is good at turning innovation into a lottery where if you invent something crucial then you get a _shot_ at fame and fortune. And psychology teaches us that random reinforcement works better than simply being "fair", so as an incentive system the patent system seems to work. As a dispenser of natural justice -- not so much.