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Comment by acd | Hacker News Reader

That is the best thing that happened to innovation in a long time. Shutdown the patent office get free competition.

No more patent trolls or bullying by large corps lawyers.

It’s great as long as you don’t invent something innovative that you would like to make public, while at the same time protecting your right to a protected period where you get first-dibs on exploiting it.

Just because the current system can be abused doesn’t mean the idea is a bad one.

Oh please. Your patents are worthless without the backing of a large corporation with heavy legal firepower.

Individuals and small businesses are terribly underserved by the current regime. If money is what buys you protection, then the current patent system is the mob.

This is, ahem, patently untrue. My uncle has invented a new type of sprinkler head (think bearded guy tweaking in his garage for years), patented it and made a decent chunk of money out of it. The factory that bought the license inventing something like this would've required a lot of time and possibly they doesn't have the talent anyways. It is almost obvious that he himself to enter the sprinkler head manufacturing market would've been extraordinarily difficult and much more risky. The system works. It is abused, yes, but it does work.

That seems to be contradicted by the existence of the 'patent troll', somebody who owns a basket of patents, doesn't use them, yet files nuisance suits and gets paid off. Win for the little guy!

Patent trolls predominantly go after small businesses that often do not have the legal team or the funds to mount a credible challenge. It’s a system where whoever has more money (or access to more legal time) wins. Patent trolls are usually run by lawyers who have copious access to their own legal time. In short, your statement is reinforcing my point.

Except the guy with the patent wins? Which is kind of the opposite

It’s more like the guy who runs out of money first loses.

There are a number of household name corporations that also act as patent trolls in their respective industries. Somewhat like the Luxottica/Oakley story, they put smaller companies in weak positions, forcing them to sell at a low valuation or go out of business.

If you are a lawyer the cost of hiring yourself is significant lower than the cost of a small company that need hire a lawyer to defend themselves.

You forget that the US is not the only country in the world. Now patents filed in other countries who adhere to the same standards will get precedence, making US companies unable to protect their own inventions.

Sounds good to me. We're getting the government we deserve. If we're so incompetent we can't even choose a government that can keep the lights on, then we don't deserve to be able to compete with companies in other nations.

> No more patent trolls or bullying by large corps lawyers.

The existing trolls, with existing patents, will be able to continue as long as the courts are funded and operating.

All a USPTO shutdown would mean is no new patents being issued for some period of time. So a troll would not be able to add a newly issued patent to their warchest for a while, but everything they already have in there remains just as useful as always (as long as the courts are operating).

surely if the trolls already have patents it will continue with those.

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