
Malaria is no excuse for patent trolling, Mr. Myhrvold - wglb
http://gigaom.com/2012/08/11/malaria-is-no-excuse-for-patent-trolling-mr-myhrvold/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+OmMalik+(GigaOM:+Tech)
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kevingadd
This reminds me of violent criminals who 'find faith' while imprisoned, except
in this case the criminal isn't even behind bars. He's out in public harming
people while claiming to do good like some sort of modern Robin Hood except
the people he's stealing from aren't villains and his Merry Men are all patent
lawyers.

It's funny, too - I've heard from people who work for IV doing medical
research and such, and they don't understand the hate IV gets in the tech
press. They really don't realize that their company has a tech patent trolling
wing.

~~~
reitzensteinm
He's a 21st century Al Capone. Through perverse incentives set by the
government, he immorally amasses a whole bunch of money at great expense to
society, then attempts to allocate some of it to win the favor of the general
public.

With Capone it was soup kitchens and coal, with Myhrvold it's polio research
and mosquito killers.

Thankfully Myhrvold uses the courts instead of thugs; though in one sense
that's even worse, because at least the government was actively trying to
thwart Capone. Who knows how long this patent mess will go on, and how much
economic damage will result.

~~~
rwmj
_Through perverse incentives set by the government, he immorally amasses a
whole bunch of money at great expense to society, then attempts to allocate
some of it to win the favor of the general public._

I guess he learned that trick from Bill Gates.

~~~
praptak
At least Gates' business satisfied some customer needs. Myhrvold's business is
forcing other businesses to pay up through abuse of legal system.

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diego_moita
It is amazing how Myrhvold can fool so many people with this bullshit of "we
created a mosquito killer laser gun that will fight malaria in poor
countries".

Most of places with endemic malaria don't even have eletricity. Mosquito nets
are efficient enough and much cheaper. Sanitation and draining of dirty water
works even when people are not sleeping.

But, still, the guy keeps fooling people with his pretended good intentions.
He is a master P.R.

~~~
rhizome
He's not so much a master of PR as someone who is defined as our better, so he
gets free, unquestioning (for the most part...) publicity for whatever
thoughts he throws out. People like him, unless they are revealed to be
involved in moral turpitude or actual crime, receive credibility a priori.

<http://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/better[noun]>

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Geekette
From the GeekWire article:

 _"You know, I was at a conference recently where someone said, “Well, do you
feel good about what you’re doing?” I turned to this person who is an
entrepreneur at a prominent social networking website, and I said, “OK, fine.
You’re about people sending little messages to each other and having fun on a
social network. How big is your malaria project?” …is Zynga doing God’s work?
Is Facebook doing God’s work?"_

Nothing quite as rich as sanctimonious shit from a rich scatologist

~~~
dredmorbius
Not to overstate the value and power of Facebook, Twitter, and Zynga, but FB
and Twitter, along with Skype, have played a very significant role in
coordinating and communicating between parties engaged in both the Arab Spring
(and ongoing) protests and revolutions, as well as the Occupy and Tea Party
movements in the US.

The US State Department has funded numerous projects to enable and facilitate
URL sharing and communications particularly within China and other
totalitarian regimes, employing channels including social and gaming platforms
to both popularize and piggyback these tools.

So, yes, social media can, even if it pains me somewhat to say it on both
atheistic and privacy grounds, do God's work.

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vhf
Great. Now I want to replicate the moskito-killer-frickin'-laser-beam
anonymously and "sell it for free"¹.

My dream for global good, including pissing Mr. Myhrvold off.

¹ Reverse Nigerian Scam : _« Hi, I'm no king, did not win the lottery, don't
need you to transfer funds for me with 20% reward. What I need, though, is
your address to send you a bunch of frickin' laser beam to keep you and your
folks safe from malaria. »_

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_delirium
It does seem unnecessarily roundabout, at least. If we really do want to
essentially impose a tax on business and use it to pay for malaria research,
it'd be simpler to just vote in an actual tax, rather than doing it indirectly
via litigation.

~~~
rhizome
Politically untenable. The US political landscape is so fragile and
dysfunctional nowadays that there exists no viable candidate nor incumbent
capable of proposing such a tax.

~~~
Joeri
Are you saying the U.S. is no longer a democracy?

~~~
rhizome
Well it's a federal republic, which includes a _kind_ of democracy. However,
my point is not about being a democracy or not, but about the political
economy in the US and the roles courage and strategy have in it.

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shmerl
It's hard to comprehend how can anyone take Nathan Myhrvold's statements as
serious. His whole business is built on the patent racket. Intellectual
Ventures produce nothing, help nothing, and do nothing, except filling Nathan
Myhrvold pockets. Well, they also serve as lackeys to Apple and Microsoft in
their patent wars against competitors, but that just only makes them worse
anyway.

~~~
adrianwaj
Interesting. Billy gets Nate to do his dirty work.

~~~
shmerl
There is a reason why they are doing this. MS and Apple want to get away from
the MAD patent balance, so trolls are eager to help:

[http://www.project-disco.org/intellectual-property/loose-
nuk...](http://www.project-disco.org/intellectual-property/loose-nukes-and-
extended-metaphors-potential-problems-with-the-kodak-patent-auction/)

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tomku
Who's to say that we won't see them patent trolling against malaria-fighting
companies in a couple years?

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arn
The original interview is actually an interesting read:
[http://www.geekwire.com/2012/feisty-nathan-myhrvold-
defends-...](http://www.geekwire.com/2012/feisty-nathan-myhrvold-defends-
quest-global-good/)

"If what you’re doing to help the world is you’re working for a Internet
company that is a non-profit in the sense that it makes no profit but has a
multi-billion-dollar market cap or is trying to, and you’re infringing lots of
patents and so you have this attitude about patents, what on Earth are you
doing that’s good for the world?"

~~~
rhizome
Disregarding patents _is_ good for the world, I would reply.

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SeanDav
Patent Troll doing good. Has there ever been a greater Oxymoron?

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adrianwaj
That greedy, glory-hunting toolbag should be out lobbying to abolish patents,
not own them all (software, at least.)

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ktizo
From here - <http://intellectualventureslab.com/?p=568>

_Who funded the work and how much have you invested in these inventions?_

 _This area of research is an example of an Intellectual Ventures program
called Sponsored Invention. In Sponsored Invention, an outside sponsor picks
the particular problems they want addressed and pays us to come up with the
inventions. The sponsor gets a license to the inventions, but we can also
license them to others. For these Malaria related projects, our sponsor is
Bill Gates._

So it isn't as though they decided one day to go out and fight malaria. It is
a commission.

[edit] Also, looking at all the pictures of their "photonic fence", they seem
to have neglected the fact that mosquitoes have been found at heights of over
1000 feet, so they might just fly over it.

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Daniel_Newby
Flagged. "Patent troll" is empty name calling. Describe problems with a
particular patent or go away.

~~~
wtracy
A patent troll is what is referred to legally as a non-practicing entity: A
corporation that owns and enforces patents without producing any products or
services using those patents.

It's not an insult--it's actually a descriptive term in this context (albeit
one with strong negative connotations).

~~~
Daniel_Newby
It is an insult. "Troll" is a content free emotional word. Non-practicing
entity is likewise a useless name.

If somebody wants to inform me, they had better say something like "claim 4 of
the '387 patent is for accepting coins with a vending machine, which clearly
is anticipated by the prior art".

Saying "oh noes, evil patent troll" does not inform me. It is sensationalism
and gets flagged as the garbage it is.

