iA makes patent threats
marco.org
marco.org
Also, note that they've recanted, as the linked article states: http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/21/5234580/patent-pending-ia...
The people who are paying you to build the land mine have interests that are different from yours -- perhaps that's not true at the moment, but it almost certainly will be in the future. They are very likely to sell your handiwork to someone else, perhaps under financial or legal duress. This may happen several times before the explosives in your creation decay into harmlessness. Chances are, any influence you may have when you manufacture your mine will only diminish with time. It is not only possible but likely that what you are building will fall into the hands of people whose interests and values are far removed from your own.
Of course, it's unlikely that you will be the one who eventually steps on your own mine. Whether that makes a difference to you depends on -- and speaks volumes about -- your character as an engineer.
Of course it answers your question. The answer is that there is no answer. You simply have no way of knowing whether a given patent will be used defensively or offensively, ethically or unethically. Like any good monster it has a life of its own.
About that...
The Rockstar consortium is an organization backed by Apple, Microsoft, BlackBerry, Ericsson and Sony. It purchased patents off of the defunct telecommunications company Nortel in 2011, in a bidding war with Google.
Now, the consortium has filed suit against Google, ASUSTek, HTC, Huawei, LG, Pantech and ZTE over those patents.
http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/31/apple-microsoft-backed-rock...
Just Twitter. Which is something, but not enough when you have a PR issue this big...
[1]: http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/21/5234580/patent-pending-ia... [2]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6966528
So, what if Apple, or Google, or Microsoft, or Oracle decide they like feature F and implement it in one of their applications that compete with whatever the small patent holder does?
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/cocoa/...
This is obviously not correct.
1) With the changes in patent law, it's now critical to be the first to file. It's not enough to just have proof that you did something / invented something before someone else.
2) A patent can be filed for the purpose of preventing a competitor or aggressor from acquiring said patent and using it offensively. This makes a lot of sense for small companies particularly if their business hinges on a specific technology that is even kinda-sorta original to said company, or if the company's prosperity depends on not getting hit by a patent lawsuit on some cornerstone aspect to their business.