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Show me these hordes of people who do basic research who become rich because of their patents. Because obviously the population of these must be rather sizeab

by bborud 12y ago

Show me these hordes of people who do basic research who become rich because of their patents. Because obviously the population of these must be rather sizeable for this to be a real alternative to, say, Wall Street. I suspect your argument is pointless. I suspect you are focusing on lottery winners.

guelo 12y ago
Right, this argument is bullshit. The only people getting rich off of patents are giant corporation CEOs and lawyers.
rayiner 12y ago
John Hennessy founding MIPS is the canonical example. Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites is another. But we're not just talking famous guys like them. At the root of most Pharma M&A are mid-sized R&D companies that get bought because of their patents. And it's not just pharma either. To pick a random recent Qualcomm acquisition, take Black Sand Technologies, which has IP in the area of power amplifiers. The company's chief technologist and co-founder is http://www.austinventures.com/team/entrepreneurs/susanne-paul http://www.austinventures.com/team/entrepreneurs/susanne-pau..., MIT PhD with 45 patents to her name. There is a huge blind spot on HN as to how other sectors of the engineering world work. If you're in wireless, you can't found a startup that directly targets consumers. If your innovation is a better power amplifier or more efficient transmission power control mechanism, your best bet is to start a company to develop the IP, and use that to get acquired by Qualcomm or Intel. And your alternative is to work for a big corp where all the fruits of your R&D efforts will go to passive shareholders. Or I suppose to work at a government R&D lab, where some private company will swoop in and take all the money once you've done the hard work.
- bborud 12y ago
  I said "show me the hordes". I can come up with any number of anecdotes myself. But show me the numbers that say that it is a safer bet to stay in academia or in a technical job and file patents than, say, go to Wall Street. I know lots and lots of people who have patents. Some of them have many patents. I know exactly zero people who have gotten rich off of their patents. I know a few people who have gotten bonuses for their patents. But nothing that would even buy a decent car. And these people are anything from independent practitioners to employees at large companies whose products you use every day. Convince me that this is more than a mere anecdotes about lottery winners.

by bborud 12y ago

guelo 12y ago

Right, this argument is bullshit. The only people getting rich off of patents are giant corporation CEOs and lawyers.

rayiner 12y ago

John Hennessy founding MIPS is the canonical example. Burt Rutan at Scaled Composites is another. But we're not just talking famous guys like them. At the root of most Pharma M&A are mid-sized R&D companies that get bought because of their patents. And it's not just pharma either. To pick a random recent Qualcomm acquisition, take Black Sand Technologies, which has IP in the area of power amplifiers. The company's chief technologist and co-founder is http://www.austinventures.com/team/entrepreneurs/susanne-paul http://www.austinventures.com/team/entrepreneurs/susanne-pau..., MIT PhD with 45 patents to her name. There is a huge blind spot on HN as to how other sectors of the engineering world work. If you're in wireless, you can't found a startup that directly targets consumers. If your innovation is a better power amplifier or more efficient transmission power control mechanism, your best bet is to start a company to develop the IP, and use that to get acquired by Qualcomm or Intel. And your alternative is to work for a big corp where all the fruits of your R&D efforts will go to passive shareholders. Or I suppose to work at a government R&D lab, where some private company will swoop in and take all the money once you've done the hard work.

bborud 12y ago
I said "show me the hordes". I can come up with any number of anecdotes myself. But show me the numbers that say that it is a safer bet to stay in academia or in a technical job and file patents than, say, go to Wall Street. I know lots and lots of people who have patents. Some of them have many patents. I know exactly zero people who have gotten rich off of their patents. I know a few people who have gotten bonuses for their patents. But nothing that would even buy a decent car. And these people are anything from independent practitioners to employees at large companies whose products you use every day. Convince me that this is more than a mere anecdotes about lottery winners.