8 ms·

I'm looking at this from the "ANYONE who tries to patent generic ideas is evil" perspective.

• timr 16y ago
  No offense, but that's not a very nuanced or useful way to think about the situation. It's the same line of thinking that makes 16-year-old kids declare that they'll never work for The Man. Idealistic and perhaps admirable, but not very practical. Opposing any individual player in a game for acting in their own rational best interest is dumb. If a big company with good products didn't act defensively in these situations, they'd be eaten alive by patent trolls who have no such qualms. Until the laws are changed, these kinds of patents are a necessary evil.
  • gbhn 16y ago
    A complication with patent trolls is that they're immune to defensive patents: they don't practice, so they can't be countersued or bargained with. I think you probably mean "other companies that develop mobile apps." In this case, especially in the context of the direct copy of the TapTapTap app as shown above, it looks like this means "our own developers."
• lol 16y ago
  There's a difference between a defensive and an offensive patent portfolio. The fact that you choose not only to ignore it, but to declare holders of them 'evil' shows that you're a child. The fact that you got upvoted is a reminder that HN has turned into an utterly worthless shithole. No intelligent person would write or upvote your comment. Soon the unaccomplished wantrepreneurial morons like you will drive the real users from this site.
• mgrouchy 16y ago
  I think we are getting pretty cavalier with the word evil these days, its not like apple is killing babies here. I'm not saying its right, but evil?