[citation][nom]chick0n[/nom]Not working? Why not ?look at Rambus ! They are totally garbage but they still survive ![/citation]
They basically sat in on the talks about DDR and ran out to patent the technology as the companies were designing it. So when it was in use it the industry, they sprung the trap. BAM.
The problem is that you can patent ideas and a "software process" without even coming up with a product or use, then sit on it till someone does, and BAM... you win.
This is very bad for the industry, but no one wants to be the first to push for it since companies use this as a weapon against other companies. Even big companies like IBM who had originally wanted to be against this practice had to fall back to using it since other companies were fighting against them with huge patent portfolios. I wager big giant patent troll portfolio shell companies ( Some owned by Microsoft/MS employees) would retaliate with impunity.
The worst part is some industry trade groups want to make other countries adopt this bad practice. It only gets the lawyers rich at the expense of everyone else, and creates barriers to entry or even survivability.
A company can let a smaller company get off the ground and then say "hey, you infringe on all these patents, pay us this money, or give us exclusive license to your tech or else we'll sue you out of the universe, and then take it anyway."
Its happened many times before.
They basically sat in on the talks about DDR and ran out to patent the technology as the companies were designing it. So when it was in use it the industry, they sprung the trap. BAM.
The problem is that you can patent ideas and a "software process" without even coming up with a product or use, then sit on it till someone does, and BAM... you win.
This is very bad for the industry, but no one wants to be the first to push for it since companies use this as a weapon against other companies. Even big companies like IBM who had originally wanted to be against this practice had to fall back to using it since other companies were fighting against them with huge patent portfolios. I wager big giant patent troll portfolio shell companies ( Some owned by Microsoft/MS employees) would retaliate with impunity.
The worst part is some industry trade groups want to make other countries adopt this bad practice. It only gets the lawyers rich at the expense of everyone else, and creates barriers to entry or even survivability.
A company can let a smaller company get off the ground and then say "hey, you infringe on all these patents, pay us this money, or give us exclusive license to your tech or else we'll sue you out of the universe, and then take it anyway."
Its happened many times before.