That's not quite true. The newer generation of tech companies (Google, Facebook, Twitter) have taken to using patents very very defensively, at least so far. G

That's not quite true. The newer generation of tech companies (Google, Facebook, Twitter) have taken to using patents very very defensively, at least so far. Google has gone as far doing an "open patent non-assertion pledge" which is far beyond just not using patents: http://www.google.com/patents/opnpledge/ http://www.google.com/patents/opnpledge/ Twitter has an Innovator Patent agreement: https://blog.twitter.com/2012/introducing-innovators-patent-agreement https://blog.twitter.com/2012/introducing-innovators-patent-...