TechDirt: Patent Pools Harming Innovation http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-112674/techdirt:patent-pools-harming-innovation Posts in the discussion thread "TechDirt: Patent Pools Harming Innovation" - Patent pools tend to come about when you have a lot of patents in and around a particular product, creating "patent thickets" where a bunch of different patent holders all hold onto important pieces of the puzzle. The worst case scenario, then, is that nothing can get done, as it's impossible for anyone to innovate without being hit by a ridiculous number of lawsuits. To us, this is a sign of the patent system clearly not working. If so many different elements all need to be patented separately, then mistakes were made in the patenting process. You get, as Michael Heller has called it, a gridlock situation. Our solution? Throw out such patents, because they're clearly hindering, rather than enabling, innovation. Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:58:00 +0000 http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-112674#post-333167 TechDirt: Patent Pools Harming Innovation http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-112674/techdirt:patent-pools-harming-innovation#post-333167 Fri, 12 Dec 2008 13:15:57 +0000 zoobab 2946 "Patent pools tend to come about when you have a lot of patents in and around a particular product, creating "patent thickets" where a bunch of different patent holders all hold onto important pieces of the puzzle. The worst case scenario, then, is that nothing can get done, as it's impossible for anyone to innovate without being hit by a ridiculous number of lawsuits. To us, this is a sign of the patent system clearly not working. If so many different elements all need to be patented separately, then mistakes were made in the patenting process. You get, as Michael Heller has called it, a gridlock situation. Our solution? Throw out such patents, because they're clearly hindering, rather than enabling, innovation."

Source: http://techdirt.com/articles/20081207/1717133041.shtml

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