SOPA Strike

Saturday, March 17, 2012

And I thought patents used to be cool...

Recently I found an article on Wired called A Patent Lie: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work. The article was written by Andy Baio, a software engineer turned tech writer and entrepreneur who writes a weekly column for Wired and did things like help start Kickstarter

His article is all about how Yahoo acquired his company and convinced him and his coworkers to disclose anything patentable to Yahoo so Yahoo could file for the patents. Andy, weary of what Yahoo intended to do with said patents, hesitated, but Yahoo insisted they only wanted the patents for protection against other companies and patent trolls. They just need to build their stockpile of nukes not to ever use them, but to convince the other guy not to set off his. Andy and his group finally complied, and years later Yahoo was filing a patent claim against Facebook, most likely using one of the patents Andy helped Yahoo gain. 

I used to think patents and patent-holders were awesome. To be recognized as the inventor of something is really cool. Too bad the patents have been turned into weapons and totally abused. Andy thought he was just helping Yahoo protect itself, but years passed and leadership changed several times. Now his work is being used in ways he never intended and never would have agreed to. All software engineers and other people out there take note: when considering whether or not to help your company obtain patents for your inventions, be weary. They may claim it's only for protection and not for evil, but things change. 

Of course, they can always file the patent for you anyway, listing you as a non-compliant inventor...

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