hunch_net hunch_net-2007 hunch_net-2007-241 knowledge-graph by maker-knowledge-mining
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Introduction: Many people in computer science believe that patents are problematic. The truth is even worse—the patent system in the US is fundamentally broken in ways that will require much more significant reform than is being considered now . The myth of the patent is the following: Patents are a mechanism for inventors to be compensated according to the value of their inventions while making the invention available to all. This myth sounds pretty desirable, but the reality is a strange distortion slowly leading towards collapse. There are many problems associated with patents, but I would like to focus on just two of them: Patent Trolls The way that patents have generally worked over the last several decades is that they were a tool of large companies. Large companies would amass a large number of patents and then cross-license each other’s patents—in effect saying “we agree to owe each other nothing”. Smaller companies would sometimes lose in this game, essentially because they
sentIndex sentText sentNum sentScore
1 The truth is even worse—the patent system in the US is fundamentally broken in ways that will require much more significant reform than is being considered now . [sent-2, score-0.824]
2 The myth of the patent is the following: Patents are a mechanism for inventors to be compensated according to the value of their inventions while making the invention available to all. [sent-3, score-0.887]
3 Large companies would amass a large number of patents and then cross-license each other’s patents—in effect saying “we agree to owe each other nothing”. [sent-6, score-0.877]
4 Smaller companies would sometimes lose in this game, essentially because they didn’t have enough patents to convince the larger companies that cross-licensing was a good idea. [sent-7, score-1.086]
5 However, they didn’t necessarily lose, because small companies are also doing fewer things which makes their patent violation profile smaller. [sent-8, score-1.092]
6 The thing which distinguishes patent troll companies is that they have no patent violation profile. [sent-11, score-1.899]
7 In effect, patent trolls impose an invisible tax on companies that do things by companies that don’t. [sent-16, score-1.473]
8 Restated in another way, patent trolls are akin to exploiting tax loopholes—except they exploit the law to make money rather than simply to avoid losing it. [sent-17, score-1.062]
9 Smaller companies are particularly prone to lose, because they simply can not afford the extreme legal fees associated with fighting even a winning battle, but even large companies are also vulnerable to a patent troll. [sent-18, score-1.372]
10 The other side of this argument is that patent trolls are simply performing a useful business function: employing researchers to come up with ideas or (at least) putting a floor on the value of ideas which they buy up through patents. [sent-19, score-1.06]
11 It should surprise no one that the patent office, which gets paid for every patent application, has found a way to increase the number of patent applications. [sent-26, score-2.271]
12 Another reason has to do with the way that patent law developed. [sent-27, score-0.801]
13 The ease of patents is fundamentally valuable to patent troll type companies because they can acquire a large number of patents on processes which other companies accidentally violate. [sent-31, score-2.564]
14 Patents become ever easier to acquire and patent troll companies become ever more prevalent. [sent-33, score-1.312]
15 In the end, every company which does something uses some obvious process that violates someone’s patent, and they have to pay at rates the patent owner chooses. [sent-34, score-0.952]
16 There is no inherent bound on the number of patent troll type companies which can exist—they can multiply unchecked and drain money from every other company which does things until the system collapses. [sent-35, score-1.42]
17 I would like to make some positive suggestions here about how to reform the patent system, but it’s a hard mechanism design problem. [sent-36, score-0.826]
18 The patent office should not make money from patents (this is not equivalent to saying that the patent applications should not be charged). [sent-38, score-2.09]
19 Patent troll companies have found a clever way to exhibit the flaws in the current patent system. [sent-44, score-1.175]
20 Substantial patent reform to eliminate this style of company would benefit just about everyone, except for these companies. [sent-45, score-0.94]
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