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Comment by nextparadigms | Hacker News Reader

Last I checked the highest value for patents was around $800,000/patent. This puts it at $1.25 million/patent. The crazier this becomes and big companies invest more billions into worthless patents, the harder these companies will fight against patent reform or abolishing software patents in the future, simply because they will not want their investment to be wasted.

So what can we expect from Microsoft to do with these web based patents, now? Start going after big and popular websites to pay them a "license" because they infringe on some undisclosed (of course) patents they own? The web patent war seems to be upon us.

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Indeed, the patent wars are in full swing. Newcomers can expect to be frozen out. Apple , Microsoft, and Google may agree to not sue each other into oblivion and gang up on any newcomer. Perhaps they will start acting like a cartel.

Since when has Google given any indication of going after newcomers with patents. Don't group them with Apple and MS.

Their refusal to clarify what they intend to do with Motorola's standards essential patents groups them in with Apple and MS.

It's perfectly consistent with using patents only defensively, while Apple and MS are currently suing newcomers left and right.

Examples? Apple doesn't seem to sue individuals over patents. They are very aggressive about defending trademarks, though. Microsoft has a history of defending their so-called technologies like FAT and SMB, much to the dismay of many, but have lightened up in recent years.

It may be consistent but suing over standards essential patents is dishonest. Arguably it's worse than what Apple and MS are doing.

"I'm going to fucking kill Google" -- Steve Ballmer[1]

"I'm here to destroy [Google]" -- Steve Jobs[2]

Maybe not the coziest of cartels.

[1] http://battellemedia.com/archives/2005/09/ballmer_throws_a_c...

[2] http://9to5mac.com/2012/04/05/biographer-disputes-google-ceo...

"We've always been at war with Eurasia."

Bickering amongst the titans of tech doesn't mean they won't gang up on issues they deem to be mutually beneficial, and often those are at odds against startups.

Those are fairly arbitrary numbers company's have won 100's of times that from a single patent. Granted, after a rather expensive legal battle, but licencing fees can also be vary significant. I suspect that's more the average for patents that have not been litigated or licensed.

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