Difference between revisions of "Inequality between small and large patent holders"
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Patents held by individuals and [[SMEs|small company]] are much weaker than patents held by large companies. | Patents held by individuals and [[SMEs|small company]] are much weaker than patents held by large companies. | ||
− | ('''Note:''' not to be confused with the inequality between product developers (big or small) and non-practising entities ([[patent trolls]]), whereby the former's patents cannot be used to counter-sue the latter. That's a different | + | ('''Note:''' not to be confused with the inequality between product developers (big or small) and non-practising entities ([[patent trolls]]), whereby the former's patents cannot be used to counter-sue the latter. That's a different problem.) |
==Small patent holders have a weak negotiating position== | ==Small patent holders have a weak negotiating position== |
Revision as of 06:20, 5 November 2010
Patents held by individuals and small company are much weaker than patents held by large companies.
(Note: not to be confused with the inequality between product developers (big or small) and non-practising entities (patent trolls), whereby the former's patents cannot be used to counter-sue the latter. That's a different problem.)
Contents
Small patent holders have a weak negotiating position
A very clear example is Andre Geim's discussion with a large electronics company. Geim won the 2010 Nobel Prize for physics for his invention of graphene, but he didn't patent it:
We considered patenting; we prepared a patent and it was nearly filed. Then I had an interaction with a big, multinational electronics company. I approached a guy at a conference and said, "We've got this patent coming up, would you be interested in sponsoring it over the years?" It's quite expensive to keep a patent alive for 20 years. The guy told me, "We are looking at graphene, and it might have a future in the long term. If after ten years we find it's really as good as it promises, we will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life, and the gross domestic product of your little island, suing us." That's a direct quote.[1]
Less interest for the public
Consider two word processor formats. Imagine that Microsoft and I both develop separate file formats. Everyone who develops a word processor has to be compatible with Microsoft's format, and no one has to be compatible with mine. Their patent is massively valuable and mine is of no value - the technical quality of the formats is of no consequence.
Related pages on ESP Wiki
References