Nathan Myhrvold- Brilliant inventor or patent troll?

http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15570585

by jeffreyg • 16 years ago

11 13 16 years ago

economist.com

farrel• 16 years ago

Patent troll.

noonespecial2• 16 years ago

The test is stupidly simple:

Does he build things or rent-seek on what others have built?

Edit: I'm sure he's not all of one thing or another. Just take an average.

rmk• 16 years ago

I don't see why trading in patents is such a bad thing. Seeing that patents have a shelf life, why is this such a bad thing?

I am amazed that a secondary market for patents was there... Myrhvold is showing us that it does... what's wrong with that?

noonespecial2• 16 years ago

If patents worked the way they were supposed to, this would be fine. People who had an interest in building or using a technology would weight the difference between licensing a patent, or buying it outright and the market would thrive.

Instead, we have a cabal of robber barons forming with no intention or building anything whose sole purpose is to rent-seek (or outright extort) those who are actually making progress in any given field.

Perhaps as a society, we need Nathan Myhrvold. We're civilized enough to know that we can't have warlords driving rusty toyotas around terrorizing villagers with ak47's but not quite civilized enough to purge ourselves of the type of men who desire such lives. So we give them paper weapons and tolerate their antisocial behavior. At least no one dies while we collectively wait to grow up.

numair• 16 years ago

Brilliant patent troll?

jmathai2• 16 years ago

At first I bought into the "patent troll" label that was being put on him. After reading more about his company and his career it's apparent to me that he's just an entrepreneur that sees huge potential in a "patent market".

Whether or not his trolling will help create more incentive for invention or impede it is yet to be seen. It's easy to simply call him a patent troll but the economics of inventions and what he's trying to do are fascinating, just like any uncharted market.

I vote that he's an entrepreneur that can be labeled as a patent troll. His company is "bad" in the same way that Walmart is bad. They probably provide a valuable service at a hidden cost.

andrewljohnson• 16 years ago

Yes, and Jason Calcanis is just an entrepreneur who sees huge potential in a "whatever the hell he's calling Mahalo lately."

Seeing an opportunity and exploiting it makes you money, but it doesn't always make it right or good for the world.

And I don't think the comparison to Wal-Mart is valid. Wal-Mart succeeded because they have the best logistics in the world. They may have some aggressive business tactics in deploying stores, but selling cheap goods to people who need them is nothing even remotely like patent-trolling (or Mahaloing).

Wal-Mart has been shown to have very positive effects on communities, such as making prescription drugs and doctor visits affordable to poor people.

jmathai2• 16 years ago

Agreed. I'm not advocating that he's having a net positive effect.

Regarding Walmart: cheap goods is a benefit (like I said) but it comes at a cost (like I said). I could say the same about Mahalo. It's having a positive effect on some of their writers or employees (I don't really know much about Mahalo, but you get my point).

pchristensen• 16 years ago

Um, both?

wmf• 16 years ago

It should be easy enough to resolve this: Where are the products? IV has been running for enough years that there should be some shipping products by now.

lanstein• 16 years ago

'Alas, this may take some time—as Mr Gates pointed out at the TED conference, new reactor designs like TerraPower’s can take 20 years to invent and another 20 to deploy. So Mr Myhrvold may find that the suspicions against him of patent-trollery have a long half-life.'

nyuk nyuk nyuk...

fnid2• 16 years ago

A couple of us are working on a project to help bring this kind of behavior to light http://www.shellcompanyfinder.com/ShellCompanies/Nathan%20My...

We just started on it, so there isn't a lot of data, but it is already possible to start making associations between companies.

bhiggins• 16 years ago

1000+ shell companies to hide patent lawsuits? Brilliant!

Nathan Myhrvold- Brilliant inventor or patent troll?

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