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Tech Giants Pooling Cash To Buy Patents
theodp writes with a link to a Reuters report, based on a WSJ story, that "Verizon, Google, Cisco, and HP are among the companies that have joined a secretive group called the Allied Security Trust. Each of the companies will reportedly put $5 million in escrow to allow AST to snap up intellectual property on their behalf before it falls into the hands of parties that could use it against them. Patents will be resold after AST member companies have granted themselves a nonexclusive license to the underlying technology. According to AST CEO Brian Hinman, a former VP of IP and Licensing at IBM, the arrangement will keep member companies out of antitrust trouble." (The WSJ's story itself is more detailed, but it's subscriber-only.)
Sounds like racketerring in a sense. IANAL, but I wonder if an ambitious prosecutor somewhere could use the RICO statues instead of anti-trust statutes.
Any lawyers familiar with RICO want to chime in?
This is actually what this group is trying to get away from. They hate lawyers as much as the next guy. They'd love to kill every lawyer in the country every generation. (You'd still need lawyers and just killing them off wouldn't stop people from going into law anyway.) Their damn problem is people like you! Yes piss ants like you that want to sue their ass. Why? They have resources, and you want them! Thief.
There are days I'd actually want some corporate feudalism except that'd require two way loyalty. Trust me I can live with IBM, HP, MS and Google doing this. I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about the dreamchasers that want to sue their companies into the ground because they have billions and make toys that my company and I buy to run our business.