Hacker News Reader

Comment by skybrian | Hacker News Reader

This is rather normal, not pathological. Most companies like to file patents, definitely including startups. Where do you think their patents come from, if not from work their employees do? It's work that's worth paying for.

Having some proprietary code doesn't prevent companies from also making substantial contributions to open source in other areas.

View on HN

  Having some proprietary code doesn't prevent companies from also making substantial contributions to open source in other areas.

... yes, but patents are not "proprietary code", in which case granting copyright is enough. If a private company contributes code I think it could even grant the copyright to an open organization, but still decide later to sue if the method/feature/function/etc is patented by them.

Not that I'd foresee IBM or any of the real players in the IT space attempting that anymore, I think most realize that alienating the F/OSS community isn't a viable strategy for a software services company in the long term.

Many companies will license patents to an open organisation as well as indemnify them against patent threats from other companies.

Patents are by and large warfare between large companies. They almost never used against open source contributors or small companies unless by patent trolls.

actually, the normal advice for startups these days is to not file patents. They're expensive and pretty much useless. They used to be worthwhile because investors liked them, but investors aren't so hot on them any more (because expensive and usually indefensible).

> normal, not pathological

Those aren't opposites, it can be both

Reply on news.ycombinator.com