Besides the "treble damages" urban legend (more on that below):
* G was putting the patents online as soon as the PTO made them available. There was no delay so G could mine them for those nuggets of valuable IP.
* There are no nuggets of valuable IP to be mined in patents.
* Even if there were, ideas are a dime a dozen. It's execution that matters.
* "Treble damages":
* first of all, the plaintiff hires a "damages expert" to calculate a good number to ask for. These people make a lot of money. "Willfulness" as in "engineer reading a patent" does not even enter into it.
* secondly, "willfulness" comes from the plaintiff writing a formal letter to the defendant informing them of the patent, and asking them to take a license. It's always from discussions with their lawyers, or maybe someone talking about it on email.
* ask yourself: if it *were* from engineers *reading* a patent, how would they even know? From their own web logs? How would they know who at the defendant's company was reading it? Wouldn't that be obscured by the defendant's internet interface?Please, please do not base your strategy for dealing with patents on the dangerous falsehoods "AlbertCory" is spreading here. It could destroy your company or your career. Don't be fooled by his claims to expertise. Don't take my word for it either. Read the law review article I recommended in my other comment, written by two of the top patent litigators in the world: https://btlj.org/data/articles2015/vol18/18_4/18-berkeley-te...