Last Year, Google & Apple Spent More On Patents Than On R&D
from the that's-not-a-good-sign dept
We've already written about the NY Times' big article on our disastrous patent system, but there was one line in the article that deserves to be called out with a separate post. As almost an aside, the article notes how much Google and Apple are spending on patent related issues these days:Last year, for the first time, spending by Apple and Google on patent lawsuits and unusually big-dollar patent purchases exceeded spending on research and development of new products, according to public filings.That seems like a pretty big problem, and one we should all be concerned about. Now, both Apple and Google are cash rich companies, so they can spend a lot on patent issues, but all of that is money that isn't going into actual innovation or developing new products. And, for smaller companies, it's much worse -- since basically all of them don't have the kind of cash reserves we're talking about with Google and Apple. If even these big companies are spending more on patents than on R&D, can't we agree that the system is completely broken?
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Filed Under: innovation, patents, r&d
Companies: apple, google
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Proving once and for all that no matter how innovative you are...
Ayn Rand was a modern day prophet.
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Re: Proving once and for all that no matter how innovative you are...
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I'm not disputing that there are wealthy that loot from the creative among us, I'm disputing that the wealthiest among us are non-creative jackasses that hold others down.
Also, I confess I was wrong, and Ayn was technically wrong. She predicted that government would be used to enact this new way of business, when it seems to be private entities abusing the legal system to do it.
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Re: Re: Re: Proving once and for all that no matter how innovative you are...
TLDR: Ayn Rand was completely, fundamentally wrong about just about everything.
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Oh wait, the government wasn't any part of that.
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More than you could ever imagine....
http://bcfreedom.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/smart-meters-energy-harvesting-data-sales-goldmine -spy-machines/
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Will this knowledge make a blind bit of difference to the law makers? Will it prompt law makers to see that the patent system is broken beyond repair? No it won't, because the only thing that matters is dollar signs and the patent industry is a billion dollar industry.
Honestly, I believe the only solution at this point is to rip the whole system out and start from scratch.
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*wink wink*
You see, the patent system exists in its present monstrosity form in order to save the world. It was carefully crafted over 150 years to achieve exactly this effect.
Why, you say? In the future, the world was destroyed by runaway rampant research, innovation, creativity.
It was horrible. You'd buy a stereo hifi pizza for breakfast and then a skateboard taco for lunch. Nobody was safe.
One day, a man name Victor Chipmunk Merkenholt discovered "Merkenholt radiation"--a product of research, innovation, creativity; called RIC for short.
Normally, Merkenholt radiation exists in such minute quantities as to be harmless and largely undetectable. Usually fading away into the background before any sizable amount built up, but due to the horrible dangers of runaway RIC the levels were reaching lethal.
Law makers tried to put a halt to RIC--but how do you stop something which anybody could do on their holographic printer and flat-space laboratory in their spare time? Nobody worked, they all just invented things to share with their friends.
The final step was taken... in order to stop RIC from destroying the world, men were sent to the past to sabotage the patent system. Now you know the truth.
It's horrible, but it must be this way.
:,/
For the good of all mankind.
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Re: *wink wink*
Time traveling, by any means, is infringement.
"to save the world."
Another form of infringement.
You owe me some royalty money.
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Fixing the patent system now will result in a DECREASE of working patent lawyers by 41 PERCENT in the next 10 years, costing the economy more then the spending on R&D by all major tech companies combined!
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How much lobbying is being done to get rid of patents?
The article said this, "But to really make a difference, such ideas require the participation of large technology companies, and the incentives to cooperate are small."
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I realize this is reaching you via online, but I completely disagree with the many recent legislative moves that seem to take away basic rights. We do not need more laws that diminish common sense rights. Copyrights are mess, the patent system is in complete disarray, and government is bending to the will of the corporate world. This needs to stop now. Corporations are not people, they should not be able to influence Congress to pass laws that benefit themselves. Lobbying is destroying us from within.
Thanks for your consideration. It is time to rethink what technology has provided, and embrace its potential.
Thanks
Jeff
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How much did they spend the year before? The year before that? The year before that?
Just because they happen to be actually trying to enforce their patents this year doesn't diminish the efforts made in the past, nor the efforts made today.
Only someone trying to make a point by misunderstanding the spending patterns and the costs involved would do that. WTG MIKE! I am shocked none of the sheeple saw this one for what it is.
You know, in the last 20 minutes, I spent more on coffee than food. Does that mean I am going to die of starvation?
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As I recall, Apple has been in the news lately - what was that again? Oh yeah, a high profile case involving claims in the billions. They were simply trying to "enforce their patents" huh. Anti competitive behavior has nothing to do with it at all does it. Rounded corners - give me a break.
Google was in the news lately for their high profile purchasing of patents. It was postulated this move was defensive in nature so I guess one could say they were protecting the patents through their purchase, however that is a bit twisted.
As a consumer, I am getting a bit tired of subsidizing this errant and inefficient waste.
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For a system that should promote innovation this data is rather telling. However, more telling than that is the money the patent hungry companies (and trolls) are injecting into Washington. I'd bet there's a correlation here.
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Look at it this way.
Ask any lawyer, which means any judge, most senators, most congressmen, most of our government.
It really isn't that hard to understand.
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Re: Look at it this way.
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Now unless I'm mistaken, government is made up more of lawyerly types than engineers. What incentive do they have to cut down on patent spending?
Obviously they are ignoring the potential for innovation to increase the size of the economy, but in fairness that isn't a one-way street... innovation (eg- CDOs) also have the potential to seriously mess with the economy, too.
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Patents
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