Matt, whereas arbitrage is a lucrative activity that's worthless to everybody else, this is a lucrative activity that's worthless and damaging. It hurts productive companies who are helping other people, at a 1:1 ratio. Each dollar Intellectual Ventures earns comes out of someone else's pocket, against their will, and in exchange for nothing.
Even if you look at it from your own self-interested perspective: wouldn't you rather they were making a useful internet service, something that might provide benefit to you? These are smart guys from Microsoft, why don't they make a company that produces a product?
This isn't a typical case of intellectual property providing a return. They're worse than the RIAA. It's an investment vehicle that provides revenue for the owners, with the added barbs that it 1.) Drains productive companies 2.) In the case of court cases, is subsidized by taxpayers.
Do you think that with $4 billion under management they only stop and enforce the legitimate and fair patents?
There's only one moral judgement to make. What they are doing is legal and unethical (hence morally wrong), and it should be made illegal, or rather, impossible under patent law. Arbitrageurs make a lot of money. They don't go to heaven.
How is this outsourcing R&D if you've already done the R&D, since you're clearly using the techniques, and then Nathan comes along and takes you to court for millions?
You're buying into the spin. Intellectual Ventures is not a think-tank for nuclear geniuses and never was. Do you really believe the marketing story Intellectual Ventures puts out? Do you think that Trident makes your teeth whiter, and that Snapple is made from the best stuff on earth?
Even if you look at it from your own self-interested perspective: wouldn't you rather they were making a useful internet service, something that might provide benefit to you? These are smart guys from Microsoft, why don't they make a company that produces a product?
This isn't a typical case of intellectual property providing a return. They're worse than the RIAA. It's an investment vehicle that provides revenue for the owners, with the added barbs that it 1.) Drains productive companies 2.) In the case of court cases, is subsidized by taxpayers.
Do you think that with $4 billion under management they only stop and enforce the legitimate and fair patents?
There's only one moral judgement to make. What they are doing is legal and unethical (hence morally wrong), and it should be made illegal, or rather, impossible under patent law. Arbitrageurs make a lot of money. They don't go to heaven.