

Apple getting sued over OS X Lion fast boot - mjurek
http://www.tekgoblin.com/2011/08/09/apple-getting-sued-over-os-x-lion-fast-boot/

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demallien
I can't help feeling that a relatively easy fix to this whole patent mess
would be to make patents indefensible if a company doesn't have an actual
product available on the market that actually uses the patent. Furthermore,
only the company making the product can use the patent. - They could sell it
to a competitor, who also has a product that uses the patent, but if a patent
troll wanted the patent they would need to create an actual working product
before trolling.

It wouldn't solve all of the problems of patents, but it would be an easy fix
for getting rid of some of the more egregarious abuses of the patent system
(companies filing thousands of pie-in-the-sky patents just so that others
_can't_ , patent trolls that exist just to buy patents and pursue actual
innovators, companies filing patents and then sitting on them, preventing
others from developing a new technology that would disrupt the company's
product).

It would be a modest change to the system which would correct at least some of
the current evident problems.

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tintin
Maybe such a system should also have an expiration date.

Lets say IBM is developing a very new technique. They file a patent but they
discover the market is not ready for the actual product. So they decide to
wait.

In this case IBM doesn't have an actual product available on the market. It
would be nice if IBM could wait for lets say 5 years without loosing the
patent.

~~~
demallien
I would much rather that a patent not be granted until a product exists. If
someone else beats you to market, to bad so sad for you. Patents exist to
encourage innovation, and I don't see how that goal is furthered by letting
someone sit on an idea without using it to the detriment of someone that is
actually ready to do something with the idea _right now_.

~~~
tintin
Well maybe you give the answer yourself.

 _"Patents exist to encourage innovation"_ Sometimes innovation is costing a
lot of money and time (research and development). When you can make sure you
can protect the outcome you are more likely to keep on innovating.

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makecheck
The obscurity of the company filing the claim is one of the things that's
wrong with the current U.S. patent system. Whomever they are, they haven't
existed for very long and they _obviously_ don't have any actual engineers
working on things like computer boot processes. As far as I can tell they're
just a bunch of guys with a checkbook and some lawyers who bought a patent
much like any other speculative investment that could pay off.

