• dustyData@lemmy.world
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        25 days ago

        If you want everyone to have it, you patent, then charge nothing to license it.

        If you don’t patent it, then a corporate patent troll will come in, patent it, charge an inordinate amount for the license, then bury you in paperwork with a lawsuit so you can’t fight back. Effectively killing the tech.

        • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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          25 days ago

          No, that’s not how open source hardware works.

          You copyright it (free) and publish online with a copyleft license.

          You would absolutely win in court without the patent. Just point to the publishing date on GitHub. Then you sue them for filing a blatantly fraudulent patent.

          • MangoCats@feddit.it
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            25 days ago

            How many suits for these kinds of blatantly fraudulent patents have actually been won? And lost?

        • Natanael@infosec.pub
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          25 days ago

          Patents does not have defensive uses, only offensive.

          You beat patent trolls by demonstrating you published first.

          • outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            25 days ago

            no defensive uses

            Says someone whos never blocked an assassin’s ninja star with a binder full of patent paperwork. There was also some incorporation stuff in there, but not enough to have worked with that alone.

            Clearly you lack real experience in the field.

            • Natanael@infosec.pub
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              25 days ago

              Only against practicing entities, and if you have enough cash reserves to deter them with legal expenses.

      • Pup Biru@aussie.zone
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        25 days ago

        sometimes you want some sort of control, or trade… like, (as much as like everyone else hates them this is the best example i can think of) tesla holds a bunch of patents and says people are free to use them, but if you do you can’t sue them for patent infringement: they still have some control