Facebook Buys 750 IBM Patents

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

[timeOday]

Patents are like movie scripts - most of them never go anywhere. If I were managing IBMs IP I would be more proud of selling 750 than being granted 6000, because it's an external validation of the quality, as opposed to quantity, of the patents. (And by "quality" in this case I really just mean "marketability," or "return on IBM's investment in research," as opposed to something harder to quantify, like scientific merit).

Re:Software patents are bad

[bws111]

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? :)

[Xtifr]

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. :)