Re:Google buys 1,000 patents from IBM to defend Android
by Anechoic on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @09:31PM
(#2998536)
Serious question; would it have been cheaper to just license the patents on a royalty basis?
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Re:Google buys 1,000 patents from IBM to defend Android
by nl on Thursday September 15, 2011 @03:18AM
(#2999162)
If you mean licence them from IBM: I doubt it. Google want the patents to protect its partners, and trying to arrange a licence like that would be hard. Also, protecting its partners means some are likely to be tested in court and fail, which will kill their value to IBM.
If you mean from Apple: Very doubtful. Apple wants to stop their competitors, not make money from them.
If you mean from Microsoft: Possibly for each manufacture, but in aggregate almost certainly not.
Re:Google buys 1,000 patents from IBM to defend Android
by wmf on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @10:13PM
(#2998647)
Do you mean from IBM or from Apple and MS?
Re:Google buys 1,000 patents from IBM to defend Android
by robot on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @09:37PM
(#2998553)
That would be like buying the bullets instead of the weapon.
Re:Google buys 1,000 patents from IBM to defend Android
by barista on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @10:11PM
(#2998642)
But I thought Google's patent play is a defensive play. So they should be looking for shields and armors not guns and bullets.
Re:Google buys 1,000 patents from IBM to defend Android
by kanamekun on Wednesday September 14, 2011 @10:20PM
(#2998673)
Mutually Assured Destruction is a defensive play... it's a recognized form of deterrence:
Mutually Assured Destruction is based on the theory of deterrence according to which the deployment, and implicit menace of use, of strong weapons is essential to threaten the enemy in order to prevent the use by said-enemy of the same weapons against oneself. The strategy is effectively a form of Nash equilibrium in which neither side, once armed, has any incentive to disarm thereafter.