Hacker News Reader

Comment by indigochill | Hacker News Reader

So we're still letting monopolies blatantly buy out all their competition, I see (also see: Facebook's purchases of Instagram + Whatsapp).

View on HN

How do you know that this outcome was not the desired endgame for the creators. It wasn't as if they were harassed to sell.

Lastly, which "we" are you referring to?

> It wasn't as if they were harassed to sell.

Bumble founder disagreed.

https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/17141308/bumble-match-group-ne...

From the article above:

"Match, which owns another popular dating app and Bumble competitor, Tinder, is suing Bumble for violating two patents and for allegedly stealing trade secrets.

It was a lawsuit made all the more intriguing considering Match wants to acquire Bumble;"

Software patents should require the source of the implementation to be published. That's the whole idea behind patents in the first place.

Exactly, you give the government a way to replicate your insight, in return you get x years of monopoly. With the first part being non-existent (didn't inventors even have to supply physical prototypes etc.?) the patent system is easy to abuse.

Monopolies aren’t hostile takeovers.

It’s companies buying competitors for market dominance with no regulatory pushback that’s the issue.

What the founders want is not terribly relevant for monopoly laws. They're for the protection of the consumers, not of the company owners.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com