
Myhrvold: $700M in licensing revenue in 2010, $2B to date - cwan
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2011/03/myhrvold-700m-in-licensing-revenue.html
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TomOfTTB
It's essentially a modern day protection racket created out of our poor patent
system. Myhrvold and company patent a bunch of vauge "forward looking" ideas.
Actual product people then create an actual product and have to pay them
because one of their vague ideas could conflict.

The only reason it works is because Myhrvold made a bunch of Microsoft money
(he never created a product there either) so everyone fears going against him
in a lawsuit.

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nickpinkston
I'd argue that the patent system itself is a "protection racket" - the
government is just outsourcing the enforcement to IV...

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nanoanderson
It's sad that the reporting of this type of revenue isn't reported with more
than a passing "we know you all have opinions" gesture towards the unethical
nature of said revenue. And by all means, debating ethics is encouraged, but
acting like ethics are a curious side-note in Myhrvold's business is terrible
reporting.

It's like saying "Say what you will about Bernie Madoff -- and we know you
will -- but his business was quite a lucrative one, raking in over $18mm in
'missing' money when all was said and done."

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svlla
TechFlash is fluffy Seattle-area "tech" company news. Mostly covers consumer-
facing internet "startups" or Microsoft. Doesn't really talk much tech at all.

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joblessjunkie
It's amazing that just a handful of non-producing individuals were able to
skim $700MM off the software industry in just one year. How much did _you_ pay
in hidden costs to Intellectual Ventures this year?

It's difficult to put a price tag on the economic benefit of software patents
-- but here we've got an obvious example of their cost.

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rudiger
It's probably not _that_ much percentage terms. I mean, the software industry
is worth many $100s of billions in annual revenue (incl. companies' revenues,
employees' revenues, and benefits to the greater economy), so it's probably a
tax on the system of less than 0.01%.

~~~
bediger
How do you know that for sure? What about all the products that didn't make it
to market because they couldn't negotiate a license that worked for both
parties? How about all the products that didn't make it to market for fear of
incurring a suit from a troll?

It's probably a tax on the system of more than 10-20%. There, my unsupported
assertion beats yours, rock-paper-scissors.

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T_S_
When you grant people the right to seek and maintain monopolies, is it any
wonder that some do so?

Smart people will always find a way to exploit a weak system. We can point at
the exploiters and cry foul or we can thank them for spotting the bugs and
change the system. Hopefully we can do that before they purchase all the votes
in Congress. Or is it too late?

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gbhn
The trade-off question is whether these temporary monopolies encourage
innovation and therefore improve overall utility. I think the balance right
now is on "no," since the trade-off is predicated on the monopolist teaching
in the patent how to implement the invention, and in it being novel and non-
obvious. At this point, patents seem written explicitly to avoid teaching and
to maximize footprint, and are very frequently not novel and/or obvious, yet
the default judgment of the patent office is to be optimistic about
applications. We basically need the courts to invalidate a ton of patents
which are vague and obscure (don't teach the method in a useful way), and a
ton more which are obvious (describe ways to use general-purpose tools in one
of their intended uses, for example, like one-click) or not novel. That'd put
a damper on it. Unless all east Texas courthouses are nuked from orbit,
though, this probably won't happen. :-/

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T_S_
Good point. I never heard of anyone reading a patent to learn how to do or
build something.

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pasbesoin
Here's one simplistic way of looking at this type of thing:

You're in class, or on the job, and you're trying to get something done. Your
classmate, or coworker, comes up and says, "Have you thought about doing it
this way?" You poke around for a while, maybe with some help from them, and lo
and behold, it works! You are grateful and don't mind sharing the credit.

Next month, you're working on something else. After busting your hump for a
week, you figure out a way to make it work. Another classmate, or coworker,
comes up -- or better yet, pipes up during the next status meeting: Oh, I
thought of that! (Let me share in some of your glory.)

You don't feel very grateful towards that prick. The leach didn't do anything
for you; they just want to sponge off of your effort. (And you are probably
questioning whether they really did what they claim, regardless of their lack
of help.)

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pathik
Patent troll!

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pavlov
Alternatively, he's a guy who did a physics PhD when he was 23, did cosmology
post-doc studies under Stephen Hawking, founded a software company and sold it
to Microsoft when he was 27, and later created Microsoft Research at the ripe
age of 31.

But maybe that counts for nothing when an emotional topic like patents is
involved. Look, an ugly troll, let's throw some rocks!

~~~
TomOfTTB
OK, here's a challenge to you. What has Nathan Myhrvold actually ever created.
He didn't make any great contribution to physics or cosmology. His software
company made a product that was a clone of another product. Microsoft Research
has been a money drain since its inception (having never created a
revolutionary advance). And now he runs a company that does nothing but file
patents.

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sp332
_Microsoft Research has been a money drain since its inception (having never
created a revolutionary advance)._

I can only assume you don't know anything about MS Research. They've been
producing more published CS papers than anyone else for years now. They
conducted the user studies that went into region-specific handwriting
recognition on their tablets, and the Office Ribbon. They also developed the
vision system in the Kinect. <http://research.microsoft.com/> They're doing an
amazing amount of research there.

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lukeschlather
Given the amount of money Microsoft has to throw around, I don't think the
amount of research is in any way remarkable. Though there are definitely some
amazing products coming out of MS research.

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linuxhansl
This is what is called a parasite.

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lotusleaf1987
Myhrvold is the face of evil.

