Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won
by jimmydddd on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @09:31AM
(#21452645)
Some people own houses that they don't even intend to live in. Then they rent out those houses to other people who actually want to live there. Improper?
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won
by ufmace on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @09:43AM
(#21452758)
Rather different things. The right to own property and do what you want with it, outside of a relatively limited set of prohibitions, is a fundamental right that forms the basis of our economy. Patents are an artificial construct created for a specific purpose with specific limitations. They are meant to encourage technological innovation by providing temporary Government protection for the inventor in exchange for a disclosure of the details of the technology. For an entity that has not invented anything and has no intention to do any research or sell any products to use them to extort rents from companies that actually do those things is a distortion of the purpose of the system.
Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won
by marcus_holmes on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:02AM
(#21452946)
no, this is similar to owning a plan for a house, then charging rent (without ever having built the house) to anyone who happens to live in a house that looks a bit similar to the plan.
Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won
by ta0xdeadbeef on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:06AM
(#21452975)
IP isn't a tangible asset, so the analogy is unsound.
I think it's improper for someone not using IP or not the original developer of IP to be able to make IP claims. If you didn't develop the tech or aren't using the tech, you shouldn't have any claim over the usage of that tech.
The same goes for "defensive" patent strategies. They're an affront to the spirit of patents.
> I think it's improper for someone not using IP or not the original developer of IP to be able to make IP claims
Congress, the Supreme Court, and hundreds of years of precedent would disagree.
Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won
by ta0xdeadbeef on Tuesday November 05, 2019 @10:36AM
(#21453266)
assert_eq!(legal, moral || ethical || proper)
> thread 0 panicked
Re:We Stood Up to a Patent Troll and Won
by darkarmani on Wednesday November 06, 2019 @11:59AM
(#21464424)
Do they also prevent anyone else from living in houses?