Apple has got away with banning sales of Samsung tablets in Europe because of patents they own.
Microsoft earns more revenues through licensing via Android devices, than it does its’ Windows Phone OS.
And, Google never owned the PageRank patent – they licensed it from Stanford, who later made $336 million by selling their Google stock.
Which makes you wonder – isn’t the patents system really a shopping store for ideas (albeit with the most ugly and user-frighteningly interface ever ?)
So, if ideas are the streets controlled by the mafia, and businesses are the mafia, suits are what they do when they come after you for not letting them in on a cut!
I’m quite certain it is – ‘coz when the Mafia comes at you, they do so even with the kitchen sink – i.e. a system to unlock a device by gesturing over a Unlock Image!
Do you worry when others have the same business idea as you do? Or do you seize the opportunity and try to build something better out of it in partnership?
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
awesome post mk.
i guess its a great big gamble – to build and execute and then have your cake STOLEN
Take the case of RIM (Blackberry) and the real nightmares that have faced…
BUT
the the real insight is – patent holders DONT know how to do business/that speciffic business – so its only a negotiation not the death penalty.
long story short – NO ONE wants to kill the golden goose that lays the eggs – just steal most of its eggs and be done.