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> Except if they're including patents on e.g. the idea of making a touch screen feel like a physical keyboard, so they can immediately sue the poor soul who act
by carl_dr 3y ago
> Except if they're including patents on e.g. the idea of making a touch screen feel like a physical keyboard, so they can immediately sue the poor soul who actually manages to pull it off...
You can only patent actual inventions, not ideas. So you can't just patent "touch screens which feel like a physical keyboard", but how your specific implementation of that works.
- izacus 3y agoSure you can, companies patent ideas constantly and then extort other companies with money because invalidating a crappy patent is extremely expensive from legal perspective. Don't mix theory and reality.
- Tuna-Fish 3y agoTell that to everyone sued with the Magnavox patent.
- idontknowifican 3y agomy partner has a patent for the idea of adding texture to a glass touchscreen. she got this patent while throwing ideas at the wall in a meeting paypal has to just come up with patent ideas
- usrusr 3y agoYou certainly can. What you can't do is patent and be 100% sure that it won't ever get invalidated in a challenge. But that never happens, because the incentive landscape makes it more attractive to licence: a company licencing instead of challenging passes the buck to its competitors, and even more importantly to potential future competitors. Patent troll companies are effectively offering moat-as-a-service and those moats perform just fine even if they are just imaginary moats.