I Don't "Get" Nathan Mhyrvold, Either

I've seen him give his Powerpoint a few times on how the patent litigation crisis is supposedly a false one and have been left scratching my head. Mike Masnick at TechDirt articulates my feelings...

...Then Mhyrvold is asked about whether or not it's okay for someone to get a patent and then not do anything with it, to which he responds:

I would say, yes, there's nothing wrong with that. And the analogy I would use is, it'd be like saying, "Is it OK for someone to buy a chunk of the business and never show up there?" And the answer is, yes. We call them venture capitalists or shareholders. To have a system of taking risk and building valuable companies, you have to have people that are financiers or have other specialized roles.

That sounds nice, but that analogy doesn't work in the slightest. Patent hoarding isn't like an investor or a shareholder. It's about someone holding onto a patent and then popping up and suing when someone else does something. A shareholder or an investor is a win-win relationship based on a fair transaction. A company gets some money, and the shareholder gets some equity. Patent hoarding is quite different. It's about holding onto a patent and then using it to legally threaten someone else or prevent them from doing work and then demanding money out of them after the fact. To equate that with an investor is simply incorrect.

Comments

[aion kinah]

Je dirais, oui, il n'ya rien de mal à cela. Et l'analogie que j'utiliserais est, ce serait comme de dire, «il est ok pour quelqu'un d'acheter un morceau de l'entreprise et ne jamais montrer là-haut? Et la réponse est oui.
Nous les appelons les capital-risqueurs ou les actionnaires. Pour avoir un système de prise de risque et le renforcement des entreprises de valeur, vous devez avoir des gens qui sont des financiers ou ont d'autres rôles spécialisés.

[floor jack]

Perhaps if you had done it in the form of a practical joke, it might have worked. I like your Dad for many reasons, both here and stories before.

[Base cap]

How sad to lose your father when he was so young. I love that you have his sweater to remind you of the great man he was!

[non-woven fabric]

well told, and though he was no outdoorsman, his code of honesty and respect shines in every sentence.

[Medical mask]

You are a hockey fan indeed. You are right though, if one is not a hockey fan, one must look for it if one wants to watch it. I am glad I read this nice story, I learned much. R

[crystal laser]

I love the way you used his dream (and yours) to tell his story. I wish my father had been able to admit to his fear.

[sandra]

This actually answered my drawback, thanks!

[jankanar]

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