Would you give a patent for BASIC’s IsNot operator? [Slashdot]
I sure wish there was an organization that could work with community developers to patent its works. Yeah, everything can be given away. But a collection of patents could also give leverage in dealing with competitive attacks. Although now that I think about it, this probably won’t be of much value if more entities are created that simply own the patents with the purpose of licensing them and do not have any products themselves to counter against. Hmm. That would be interesting. In fact, doesn’t it seem best for companies to sell their extremely unique patents to an IP entity that they create (and own a stake in) which does not have any products to challenge against? Nah, can’t be.
It’s at times like this that I realize I should have followed my mom’s advice and become a patent attorney rather than an engineer :-).