Facebook Buys 750 IBM Patents 46
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by
Soulskill
from the business-imitates-black-market-weapon-deals dept.
from the business-imitates-black-market-weapon-deals dept.
eldavojohn writes "Considering IBM's portfolio gained 6,180 last year alone, it's not a huge number. But after a dispute with Yahoo a couple weeks ago, Facebook has purchased 750 patents from IBM. That's over thirteen times the 56 they were reportedly holding. The humorous rumor is that Yahoo might have been licensing these patents from IBM. If you can't beat 'em, buy the patents they're licensing from another company. Another rumor is that Facebook might be just getting started in their bid to expand their patent portfolio (video). No word yet whether the purchased patents directly pertain to Yahoo's infringement claims on messaging, privacy controls, advertising, customization and social networking."
750 seems like a lot to me (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Software patents are bad (Score:5, Interesting)
It implies no such thing. IBM is a very large company, with lots of researchers, developers, and engineers in many disciplines. Now, how about an example of IBM squeezing money out of people who dare to make their own things?
Time to dump software patents? :) (Score:5, Interesting)
Given the recent SCOTUS decision about the patentability of "laws of nature" (Mayo v Prometheus), following right on the heels of Bilski, I would be dumping software patents as fast as I could, and would be overjoyed to find someone like Facebook willing to pay me for them.
Once again, IBM proves that they're no dummies. :)