Working in the industry, I know that a good patent (one that is original) can be a big asset. But failing that, if you go after another company with 50 obvious patents that they may infringe on, it simply gets too expensive to defeat every one of them. Plus, the justice system is somewhat unreliable, so if they fail to defeat one, they are still screwed.
Its like the corporate patent folks pride themselves of patenting the obvious. They take pride in patenting what nobody else thought was even patentable!
Slashdot Mirror
Working in the industry, I know that a good patent (one that is original) can be a big asset. But failing that, if you go after another company with 50 obvious patents that they may infringe on, it simply gets too expensive to defeat every one of them. Plus, the justice system is somewhat unreliable, so if they fail to defeat one, they are still screwed. Its like the corporate patent folks pride themselves of patenting the obvious. They take pride in patenting what nobody else thought was even patentable!