Comment by neilv
2 months ago
About 25 years ago, this was explained to me as "sword patents and shield patents".
Sure, some can use patents as swords, to suppress legitimate competition, or to extract undue rents. But you can also use patents as shields, to protect in various ways against those swords.
If I ran a BigTech (like the original warm-fuzzy Google reputation), I'd be registering any plausible patents, and have lawyers figure out how to freely license-out the ones that weren't key secret sauce, under terms that figuratively poisoned anyone doing illegitimate sword patents.
> If I ran a BigTech
History tells us that those who run a BigTech become crazy narcissists serving their own interests :).
For myself, that's a chance I'm willing to take. :)