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A comment on Creator of Linux virtual assistant blames 'patent troll' for project's death. Parent comment

Re:Creator of Linux virtual assistant blames 'patent troll' ... by bdowling on Monday February 13, 2023 @06:16PM (#34782396)
A small company (e.g., a startup) will never sue to enforce its patents because suing is too expensive. Because they won’t sue, they won’t be able to license the patents to anyone.

For a startup, however, patents can still have value in at least the following ways:

1. Patents on improvements can discourage established competitors who are using the same or similar improvements from suing the startup for infringing the competitors' patents.

2. A potential acquirer may want to acquire the company for its patents. The acquirer may be an established competitor who does have the resources to assert the patents against other competitors.

3. Patents encourage investors who see patents as residual assets that would be liquidated if the company fails.

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Re:Creator of Linux virtual assistant blames 'patent troll' ... by em3rgent0rdr on Monday February 13, 2023 @08:20PM (#34783806)
Value (1) illustrates the absurdity of the patent system. Innovation, the thing the patent system ostensibly protects, is put at risk by..patents. And so the value of a patent for inventors is to protect their innovation from...patents.
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Re:Creator of Linux virtual assistant blames 'patent troll' ... by bdowling on Monday February 13, 2023 @08:58PM (#34784117)
Our patent system allows an inventor to patent an improvement to another's patented invention. Ideally, that should (1) encourage early inventors to continue to invest in improving their inventions before someone else does and (2) encourage new inventors to improve on existing, still-patented inventions by giving them ways to profit from their improvements.

There are very few places in law where you can legally stake a claim within someone else's territory and exploit it for profit.

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Re:Creator of Linux virtual assistant blames 'patent troll' ... by bdowling on Thursday February 16, 2023 @07:41AM (#34817929)
To be clear, that anyone can improve upon anyone else’s invention and claim their improvement as their own, to the exclusion of the prior inventor, is what drives innovation.
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