Amazon The Latest Tech Company To Realize It Needs To Waste A Ton Of Money Buying Patents
from the this-is-not-healthy dept
In the last few years, the "nuclear war" of patent fights -- especially in the mobile phone space -- has woken up a bunch of big companies to the need to amass giant patent portfolios which they know they won't use for innovation purposes, but solely as weapons to fight back when other patent holders attack them. This is why we've been seeing so many high profile patent auctions lately at insane prices (Nortel, Novell, Kodak, etc.). Amazon is now joining the fray as well, as it's trying to hire a bunch of folks to buy up patents to boost its portfolio.Amazon has hired executive recruiting firm Argos Search to help the company hire an intellectual property "Acquisition and Investment Leader" to "identify and evaluate strategic IP acquisition and licensing opportunities," according to a job description obtained this week by Reuters.What an incredibly sad job. It's a role designed to waste a company's money on pieces of paper that will never be used for actual innovation, but merely as tools for the possibility of a patent battle with others. What a broken system.
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Filed Under: patent trolling, patents
Companies: amazon
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intellectual property "Acquisition and Investment Leader"
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Or wait, maybe they're the staff member? I used to have that job and can remember having to lug heavy flat pack wardrobes down stairs.. No patents though (they must be kept in the office or the secure room - I was never allowed in there).. maybe they're in their new catalogue?
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Get over it.
Ofcourse, you can cry about it, and have. but clearly and for good reason, these companies do not listen to you.
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Re: Get over it.
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Re: Get over it.
(Either way, I'll award you a 7/10. It's a pretty obtuse post, and thereby challenges people to respond effectively, but I didn't quite feel the contempt. You might try adding a "Mikey" next time.)
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Re: Get over it.
I love companies doing business. What I don't like is a legal regime that forces them to throw away money in non-productive ways that don't contribute to the business of providing more value for its customers.
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Re: Get over it.
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Re: Get over it.
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Re: Get over it.
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Re: Get over it.
But that isn't what's happening with these patent wars. They are doing the things that will make them money in the short term, and that money is coming by cannibalizing future markets. They are, in effect, eating their young.
This is not what healthy businesses do. This is what dying businesses do. Healthy business engage in activities that will enhance their profitability over the long term, which means growing markets.
These companies are engaging in epically bad business practices. It's called "cashing out".
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Re: Get over it.
Of course, you can cry about it, and have. but clearly and for good reason, these companies do not listen to you.
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The Peacock’s Tail
The puzzle of biological evolution is not that it happens or how it happens, but why it takes one path and not another. Why are certain organisms more “fit” to survive than others? Darwin first proposed the idea of “natural selection”, which means that those best able to take care of themselves will survive.
But this doesn’t explain bizarre developments like the peacock’s tail, which quite plainly reduces the ability of the creature to take care of itself, by requiring extra nutrition to maintain, potentially hampering its ability to escape from danger, and so on. The explanation for this one is called “sexual selection”: such a gaudy show attracts a mate, by demonstrating that its owner is so physically superior that it can afford to waste energy on such a display without compromising its own ability to survive.
Maybe all these multi-billion-dollar acquisitions by large corporations serve a similar function: by demonstrating their ability to wantonly squander such large sums of money, their (male) bosses get the girls.
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Umm... they already reached that point. Automated systems suing dead grandmothers ring a bell?
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1-click?
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Why do you always see the negative? Are you that jaded and that angry?
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Either way it is still a waste of money on pieces of paper and lawyers that could be better spent on actual innovation, product development, or lowering costs to customers.
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Licensing basically gets you past the initial research and "thinking it up" costs, and moves you more directly onto either making a new product, or improving an existing one.
Mike never talks about that. It would disprove so many of his theories about the "monopoly" boogieman.
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"Strategic IP acquisition" means buying patents, not licensing them. That's only useful for 2 things - attacking other companies or defending themselves against attacks.
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"Strategic IP acquisition" means buying patents, not licensing them. That's only useful for 2 things - attacking other companies or defending themselves against attacks."
Don't be so narrow minded. One side of licensing is deciding to buy the patent outright instead. Yes, it can be to obtain control of a marketplace, but normally for companies like this it is not to lock up the technology, but to in fact use it.
You and Mike both make the assumption that it is either entirely defensive, or entirely lawsuit oriented. You don't seem to think there is anything else.
How narrow minded of you.
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Trolls, start your engines!
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Kodak is a bankrupt company, yet their IP is supposedly worth billions of dollars. If the IP is worth that much money, then Kodak should have been able to do something with their government-approved monopoly. Same thing with Nortel.
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If you open you mind enough anything terrible can be rationalized.
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When Microsoft makes more money from Android phones than Google does without actually making anything for the Android phone, then there is something wrong with the patent system.
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Should have seen it coming.
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more dissembling by Masnick
Not all competition is fair. When the courts permit a larger competitor to use an invention without the inventor's permission, it's like having a duel where your challenger has your gun and all the bullets. Think again...or just think!
It’s about property rights. They should not only be for the rich and powerful. Show me a country with weak or ineffective property rights and I’ll show you a weak economy and high unemployment.
Masnick and his monkeys have an unreported conflict of interest-
https://www.insightcommunity.com/cases.php?n=10&pg=1
They sell blog filler and "insights" to major corporations including MS, HP, IBM etc. who just happen to be some of the world’s most frequent patent suit defendants. Obviously, he has failed to report his conflicts as any reputable reporter would. But then Masnick and his monkeys are not reporters. They are patent system saboteurs receiving funding from huge corporate infringers. They cannot be trusted and have no credibility. All they know about patents is they don’t have any.
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Re: more dissembling by Masnick
What's the matter, Ron? Did your patent on copying and pasting the same shit over threads expire?
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