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Re:Microsoft buys AR headset patents for $100-150M – report by _puk on Saturday March 29, 2014 @05:23PM (#7494016)
The sheer number of patents involved, and the generality of said patents is what discourages future innovation.

It's a complete first man advantage, anyone coming after that has to deal with the fact that 130+ patents already exist. Sure, some of these are probably extremely valid, but seriously, 130+?

So we've got some revolutionary new technique that allows real-time visualisation direct onto the user's retina, your brain can't distinguish it from reality..

Yeah, but the user is seeing something that's not physically present? Got that one covered. Pay up.

Re:Microsoft buys AR headset patents for $100-150M – report by sweeney2014 on Saturday March 29, 2014 @05:39PM (#7494096)
Patents block copying only exactly what's covered by the Claims and thereby encourage finding alternatives or develop new ways. Society benefits from having alternatives to choose from.