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Comment by noonespecial | Hacker News Reader

Patents are like the nuclear waste of innovation. At first, heavy with good intentions and swearing to use them for the best purposes, they make power for their creators.

But eventually they become old, disused, and forgotten, leaking out into the landscape and poisoning the environment for decades.

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How can an old patent cause problems for decades when patents expire after only two decades?

Imagine if you had to wait two decades after the iPhone came out to make any other touch screen phone.

Because old, disused, and forgotten is about 4 years in tech.

2 in the mobile space.

think about the sentence you just said:

"How can an old patent cause problems for DECADES when patents expire after only TWO DECADES?"

:-)

You need to capitalize "old" as well if you're looking for proper emphasis. Only new patents have decades left to do anything, while "old, disused, and forgotten" patents definitely don't, and may have only a few years left. Many of these creaky old patents you see people being brought to court for are so viciously pursued because the holder is about to lose the patent and needs to eke out as much money as possible right now. But thankfully, they can't do that with the same patent for decades.

great point! I did not consider that originally

Often it takes most of a decade for a patent to become relevant commercially - apart from design patents which are pretty much not patents as far as I can see...

So _this_ is the "thermonuclear war" that Steve Jobs was threatening.

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