Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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You know what? Fine. Don't elaborate, I don't care anyway.
I can elaborate, I just thought it's obvious.
Companies don't patent things because they have a product and they want to sell it, because they think it may make them profit in the future or even because they thin it's a good idea in general.
Companies get patents when they find an idea novel enough to patent it. They want to have big portfolio of patents for two main reasons:
investors like it. They think the company is innovative and intellectual property adds value to the company. it basically looks good to have a lot of patents
it's ammunition in patent wars. If your competitor tries to sue you for infringing on their patents you can always find some patents in your portfolio where you can claim that they infringe them and sue them in retaliation. A lawsuit can turn in to a negotiation. The more patents you have the more protection from lawsuits
Patenting something doesn't mean company is about to turn it into a product. It just means they managed to patent something. When I worked in IBM the company was giving bonuses for successful patent applications. It was a requirement for some higher managerial positions to get some patents for the company. The process was simple: you send your idea to the lawyers, they check if the idea is patented already, if not they apply for the patent. It had nothing to do with IBMs business plans. It was purely legal evaluation.