Comment Re:Could be intaresting.... (Score 1) 410
Actually, sharing patents is a perfectly legal way of creating a legally enforcable cartel.
David Friedman (a renowned economist by himself, and son of Nobel laureate economist, Milton Friedman) has a chapter on on it in his book, "Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life".
The recipe is simple. You cross-license patents so that you pay your competitors a fixed price per unit you produce and they and they pay you for your patents.
Now, if you raise your production level, your cost goes up - you have to pay more for the patents - and your competitors sell less, which reduces your income. Hence, your net marginal cost is higher.
Therefore, each firm has a strong incentive to charge more for each product and produce fewer units. After this, it is just a matter of raising the patent-licensing fees to the cost that maximizes the profit...
So, maybe there is a simple reason for these software patents anyway - the software companies are starting to learn the tricks of the old industrial companies. If this is the case we can look forward to them entering politics (lobbying) to get the governments to help them keep competitors at bay. That's when we should start worrying for real, especially if it happens on an international scale.
Until then, it's just childs play...
David Friedman (a renowned economist by himself, and son of Nobel laureate economist, Milton Friedman) has a chapter on on it in his book, "Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life".
The recipe is simple. You cross-license patents so that you pay your competitors a fixed price per unit you produce and they and they pay you for your patents.
Now, if you raise your production level, your cost goes up - you have to pay more for the patents - and your competitors sell less, which reduces your income. Hence, your net marginal cost is higher.
Therefore, each firm has a strong incentive to charge more for each product and produce fewer units. After this, it is just a matter of raising the patent-licensing fees to the cost that maximizes the profit...
So, maybe there is a simple reason for these software patents anyway - the software companies are starting to learn the tricks of the old industrial companies. If this is the case we can look forward to them entering politics (lobbying) to get the governments to help them keep competitors at bay. That's when we should start worrying for real, especially if it happens on an international scale.
Until then, it's just childs play...
