

The Defensive Patent License and Other Ways to Beat the Patent System - sequoia
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/06/defensive-patent-license-and-other-ways-beat-patent-system

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acoustix650
@conanite:

I happen to work for RPX, and it's actually a very common misconception that
people believe our model is identical to IV's.

The biggest difference is that RPX does not assert its patents, ever. It's our
business model to protect operating companies making honest money from trolls.
If you decide not to give RPX "protection money", we won't do anything to harm
you. It's up to you to sign up for our services.

Another difference is that we also intervene in our clients' litigations, and
help them resolve their lawsuits by buying patent licenses on their behalf.
And we have advisory services for new companies not familiar with the rules of
patent litigation, and patent market intelligence for those who want to keep
up with what's happening.

~~~
conanite
Aha, thanks for the clarification. The article stated RPX "promises to never
use [its patent portfolio] offensively against its _customers_ ". Never, ever,
against anybody ... that's quite nice, actually :)

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conanite
_Private, for-profit companies also provide various ways to navigate the
patent system. For example, RPX allows companies to buy into its large patent
portfolio, which it promises to never use offensively against its customers._

So you give RPX protection money and they leave you alone. This is what
Intellectual Ventures does. Why is it ok for RPX? (never heard of RPX before
btw)

Or have I missed something obvious?

See also: Twitter Patent Agreement
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3853949>

~~~
ambertch
RPX is defensive aggregation only - they don't go out and sue people.

There's also value add whenever you have centralized expertise: think
PGExperts, Percona, and EnterpriseDB (mysql and postgres consultants) - if I'm
running a company whose core business is not in the data, it's usually more
economical to outsource that expertise than hire a 'superstar' DBA. Same with
RPX: if your core business isn't IP law you might as well outsource that.

This is why consultancies of all shapes and types exist in the world, after
all.

Companies spend millions just to defend a suit whether they win or lose -
that's why they settle. The genius of RPX is that they basically identified
that as an inefficiency aka market opportunity.

A lot of startups could learn from this model: taking an existing market and
making it more efficient. That's usually a better bet than building an
Instagram or Twitter analytics company - the big caveat of course is you
actually have to have domain expertise in an industry to do this type of
startup ;)

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rthomas6
Doesn't this defeat the purpose of a patent, though? If I file a defensive
patent, and someone blatantly copies my patent and uses it in their own
design, what legal recourse do I have? Wasn't protection against copying the
original purpose of patents?

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conanite
The idea of a "defensive" patent is that you only ever assert it against
another company asserting its patents against you. If you file a patent with
the intention of preventing people from using an idea, I suppose you could
call that an "aggressive" patent.

> Wasn't protection against copying the original purpose of patents?

The original purpose was to provide an incentive for inventors to (a) invent
stuff, and (b) disclose their inventions, so that after a limited time, the
invention would be free (as in freedom) to use by any other party.

The problem now is that frivolous patents enable trolls to prevent,
discourage, and stifle innovation, and the original purpose of the system is
turned on its head.

When my cat plays with reflected lights dancing on the floor, she may well be
in violation of somebody's patent.

When you see Google/Apple/Microsoft spending giga$ to acquire patent
portfolios, it's not because they're short on brains: they need these patents
to play the patent game. And that's so much money that's not being spent
making better software for you and me.

~~~
lolilives
>When my cat plays with reflected lights dancing on the floor, she may well be
in violation of somebody's patent.

Maybe this one? <http://www.google.com/patents/US5443036>

