Nathan Myhrvold- Brilliant inventor or patent troll?
economist.com
economist.com
Does he build things or rent-seek on what others have built?
Edit: I'm sure he's not all of one thing or another. Just take an average.
I am amazed that a secondary market for patents was there... Myrhvold is showing us that it does... what's wrong with that?
Instead, we have a cabal of robber barons forming with no intention or building anything whose sole purpose is to rent-seek (or outright extort) those who are actually making progress in any given field.
Perhaps as a society, we need Nathan Myhrvold. We're civilized enough to know that we can't have warlords driving rusty toyotas around terrorizing villagers with ak47's but not quite civilized enough to purge ourselves of the type of men who desire such lives. So we give them paper weapons and tolerate their antisocial behavior. At least no one dies while we collectively wait to grow up.
Whether or not his trolling will help create more incentive for invention or impede it is yet to be seen. It's easy to simply call him a patent troll but the economics of inventions and what he's trying to do are fascinating, just like any uncharted market.
I vote that he's an entrepreneur that can be labeled as a patent troll. His company is "bad" in the same way that Walmart is bad. They probably provide a valuable service at a hidden cost.
Seeing an opportunity and exploiting it makes you money, but it doesn't always make it right or good for the world.
And I don't think the comparison to Wal-Mart is valid. Wal-Mart succeeded because they have the best logistics in the world. They may have some aggressive business tactics in deploying stores, but selling cheap goods to people who need them is nothing even remotely like patent-trolling (or Mahaloing).
Wal-Mart has been shown to have very positive effects on communities, such as making prescription drugs and doctor visits affordable to poor people.
Regarding Walmart: cheap goods is a benefit (like I said) but it comes at a cost (like I said). I could say the same about Mahalo. It's having a positive effect on some of their writers or employees (I don't really know much about Mahalo, but you get my point).
We just started on it, so there isn't a lot of data, but it is already possible to start making associations between companies.
nyuk nyuk nyuk...