All of Anthony Biller's points condemning patent trolls can also be applied to any company which holds software patents and is not classified as a patent troll. The only difference between the two classes of software patent holders is that patent trolls are invulnerable to counter attack from their victims' own software patent portfolio.
One of the reasons that companies amass software patent portfolios is to provide a counter weapon against software patent aggressors. Software patent troll invulnerability to this type of defence is annoying to companies which have spent a lot of money amassing software patents partially as a defence in the software patent wars. Thus they are prone to taking the position which Anthony Biller advocates that software patent trolls are evil and all other software patent holders are good guys.
Whether the intentions of the individual software patent holders are good or evil is overshadowed by the fact that collectively they are a tremendous drag on the software industry. Each software patent holder would be well off if they were the only one holding software patents, thus the campaign to eliminate at least some of the competition. But when everyone has software patents then each individual software patent holder is worse off than if nobody had software patents.
"While I think the system needs further reform, elimination goes too far."
No it doesn't. I worked in the software industry for 25 years before the American Supreme Court invented software patents. The software patent system does not give the software industry a single advantage over the pre software patent years. Describing the disadvantages that software patents bring to the software industry would fill a book. Everything is to be gained by abolishing software patents and absolutely nothing is to be lost.
All of Anthony Biller's points condemning patent trolls can also be applied to any company which holds software patents and is not classified as a patent troll. The only difference between the two classes of software patent holders is that patent trolls are invulnerable to counter attack from their victims' own software patent portfolio.
One of the reasons that companies amass software patent portfolios is to provide a counter weapon against software patent aggressors. Software patent troll invulnerability to this type of defence is annoying to companies which have spent a lot of money amassing software patents partially as a defence in the software patent wars. Thus they are prone to taking the position which Anthony Biller advocates that software patent trolls are evil and all other software patent holders are good guys.
Whether the intentions of the individual software patent holders are good or evil is overshadowed by the fact that collectively they are a tremendous drag on the software industry. Each software patent holder would be well off if they were the only one holding software patents, thus the campaign to eliminate at least some of the competition. But when everyone has software patents then each individual software patent holder is worse off than if nobody had software patents.
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Steve Stites