Instead of protecting innovation, the patent system is protecting the oligarchs whose primary goal is no longer innovation but that of churning out patents. It seems that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission just don't get it, or they're purposely turning a blind eye.
From a Forbes blog (yeah I know, Forbes?, but you should click thru to read), Timothy Lee writes:
"The patent office has awarded Google about 700 patents in its 13-year lifetime. Microsoft has received 700 patents in the last four months."
"Even if you think Microsoft is more innovative than Google, the engineers in Redmond obviously haven’t been 25 times as innovative as those in Mountain View."So let me just say, there is no way that anyone with half an eye and ear on the tech industry, would ever stipulate that Microsoft is MORE innovative than Google, let alone 25x. What this is about, according to Lee, is creating a factory to direct energy specifically towards producing patent applications for the most mundane, or tiniest idea that comes out of each and every engineer working for Microsoft. Or as I would call it: the oligarch found a way to remain relevant even while its own development of products has slowed. I think Lee sums it up well:
"The result is a transfer of wealth from young, growing, innovative companies like Google to mature, bureaucratic companies like Microsoft and IBM—precisely the opposite of the effect the patent system is supposed to have."Word's getting out about Microsoft's extortion of Android manufacturers, and how Microsoft is earning more money from suing and royalties off Android, than sales of WP7. And frankly, we already know WP7 sales continue to drop each month.
So can we officially start calling Microsoft a Patent Troll?
(via ComputerWorld)
No comments:
Post a Comment