
Tech companies are hoarding patents, but they should be donating them - mido22
https://theoutline.com/post/1198/tech-companies-are-hoarding-patents-but-they-should-be-donating-them
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payne92
Like an arms race, this approach (formally dedicating to the public,
effectively terminating the patent at the PTO) only works if _everyone_ does
it.

Otherwise, it's strategic and prudent to have a patent portfolio, so you have
trading cards and leverage if someone asserts against you.

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divbit
In the last two paragraphs it states that IBM used to publish papers on its
inventions to prevent others from patenting them. I have heard that recently,
the law has changed to allow it to be possible to patent something within a
year of its publishing. Maybe someone knows more about this - is this true?
Seems like it would incentivize patenting if so, rather than publishing or
dedicating to the public, as then people would just patent whatever someone
else publishes.

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arcanus
I'm not sure it's fair to attack IBM for trying to patent out of office
emails.

If they had attempted to use the patent against others, I would be immensely
critical. But it strikes me as more likely that the patent was a defense
measure to protect the company against trolls.

While donating the patent sounds nice, isn't it absolutely the same outcome if
a company keeps the patent and does not litigate with it?

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pjc50
You can't know that they _won 't_ litigate it, only that they haven't. And
it's always possible for that policy to change, or the patent to be sold, or
even for IBM to go bankrupt and the patents sold to trolls to pay the
creditors.

