What does HN think about the term "patent pirates" for these people? Like maritime pirates, they use threats to extort money from people engaged in legitimate businesses, while carrying out no productive activity of their own.
I think that in the next few years, the markets for patents he describes will make the US a substantially worse place to try to carry out innovation or sell an innovative product. They're pretty much inevitable, because the economic value of a patent held by a patent pirate is much greater than the economic value of a patent held by a productive enterprise that is vulnerable to a patent countersuit.
I concur with you. Pirate is definitely a more pertinent term. Patent trolls recklessly attack companies in hopes of finding some good loot. What they're doing may not be illegal, but it's ethically murky at best.
What does HN think about the term "patent pirates" for these people? Like maritime pirates, they use threats to extort money from people engaged in legitimate businesses, while carrying out no productive activity of their own.
I think that in the next few years, the markets for patents he describes will make the US a substantially worse place to try to carry out innovation or sell an innovative product. They're pretty much inevitable, because the economic value of a patent held by a patent pirate is much greater than the economic value of a patent held by a productive enterprise that is vulnerable to a patent countersuit.