[muhfuhkuh]

"They'll turn eventually."

IBM, with over 45,000 patents, could easily and completely shut down every single aspect of the technology industry if they wanted. The fact that they haven't in its 100 years is a testament to the clearly more superior way of competing in the market to win out.

[RexRollman]

IBM has a history of using patents to extort money:

http://www.forbes.com/asap/2002/0624/044.html

[dredmorbius]

To the tune, if memory serves, of about $1b a year in the late 1990s. Though that number is challenged (estimated at closer to $135m/year): http://www.iam-magazine.com/blog/Detail.aspx?g=9be3f156-79b1...

[Tyrannosaurs]

And on the other hand Intellectual Ventures set out to provide a mechanism for preventing patent abuse by letting small companies use IVs patents to protect themselves yes have turned out to be the biggest trolls going.

It's all supposing and it could go either way but early intentions only count for so much.

I'd like it if Google held their principals but it's hard to look at them and not see their principals eroding just a little bit over time and wonder if this might be one of them.

After all, they have a relatively weak portfolio right now and you could argue that their lack of offensive action to date is as much a case of them bringing a knife to a gun fight as a matter of principal.

[bmunro]

I think you mean principle - an accepted or professed rule of action or conduct. Principal means leader/most important.

[Tyrannosaurs]

FPWM.