Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Maltby
Join or Die!! MS made them an offer they couldn't refuse, is that it?
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More like "Join AND die". For a patent to be useful defensively, the troll suing you couldn't have the right to use that defensive patent. The idea is, if you sue me with your patent I don't have a license to yet, I'll sue you with mine you don't have a license to. In the partnership, Google would have helped pay the piper, but wouldn't have received protection from its "partners" in the deal, who would have had every right to use those same patents.
Think 2 wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner and then making the sheep (pre-)pay 1/3 of the chef's bill.