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The Dark Side of the Tech Patent Wars

Posted by Soulskill on from the is-there-a-light-side dept.

GMGruman writes "Bill Snyder warns that the tech patent wars are going nuclear, and could vaporize tech jobs in the process. He likens the situation to medicine, where so much money now goes to pay for insurance and 'defensive medicine,' rather than for actual care. In the tech world, he fears that the same will occur with patents, forcing companies to spend ever more money on patents and lawyers — and less on innovation and staff."

3 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Dark side? by bunratty · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The bright side is that the people who innovated to make the patents are being compensated for their efforts. This is how patents motivate people to innovate. Would you prefer if Google could use other people's innovations without compensating them?

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    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
  2. Re:Dark side? by networkBoy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually, once all the tech jobs are wiped out then there won't be any new tech to patent, and the companies will implode.
    Once the owners of the patents all implode and the FSF owns all the patents, having bought them for haypennies on the dollar, tech inventers can resume inventing.

    Since the patent minefield is such that nothing new can be made without stepping on at least one patent, the FSF can ensure any new megacorps have to enter a cross license. The end result is that the FSF will own or have a license for *all* tech patents. /dreaming
    -nB

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    whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
  3. Re:Dark side? by jhoegl · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You assume the tech patent holders care about what they leave in their wake.
    If it implodes they will take their money and schemes elsewhere. Holy shit, just look at the pharma industry.
    Have a heart condition that requires our pill to save your life? That will be $500 per pill, why that much? Because we can, and fuck you for living.