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Comment by glitchc | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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