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Entrepreneurs: 1; Patent Trolls: 0
- jcl 18y agoWhile I agree with the sentiment in the article, I think the title is a little off... Technically, patent trolls are entrepreneurs -- just not very productive ones.
- cellis 18y agoI would not say they are entrepreneurs as much as they are arbitrageurs. Personally, i find this type of arbitrage quite distasteful but it is legal, and will eventually come to an end. This is because whenever there is a loophole, it is the most exploitative and conspicuous arbitrageurs that result in its closing (think Enron).
- jcl 18y agoTrue, it is arbitrage and it is distasteful. But patent law was designed to encourage the small inventor, which also happens to allow patent trolls to operate; I get the impression that most patents used by trolls are bought from the holdings of failed startups. I do hope the loophole gets closed, but I also hope it gets closed in the right way. I'm sure the big patent holders (like Microsoft and IBM) would love to eliminate trolls by adding a requirement that a patent holder must be using the patent in a successful product -- with "successful" being defined as some suitably large number of units per year. This would allow big patent holders to effectively ignore patents owned by small players, but not the other way around, which discourages competition and innovation.
- xiaoma 18y agoI would not say they are arbitrageurs as much as they are parasites.
- noonespecial 18y agoYes, yes and porn is art, but really everyone knows the difference.
- anthonyrubin 18y agoWhile this is good news, it is hardly the end of the matter.
- ivankirigin 18y agoIf you're at a young startup, I think this means you should immediately stop thinking about this category of patents. It's really important to not was cycles when you have so few.
- LPTS 18y agoentrepreneurs: 1 Patent Trolls: >1 By a lot.