[fredwilson]

yes, exactly. that is the thing that many people are missing about the elegance of this hack

[damoncali]

Wouldn't this "evil" company just buy out or otherwise pressure the inventor? I don't see how that works.

In one case, evil company buys patent, and pays off everyone involved to drop this agreement. Now we're back to normal.

In another case, evil company can't get eveyrone to do that, so the transaction doesn't happen.

This seems exactly the same as saying "We won't use our patents offensively, and we won't sell them." No legal documents required.

[Kliment]

Well, if the inventor does not want to be bought out, and does not want to give up the agreement, the patent cannot be used offensively. This reduces the value of the patent as a weapon. This is exactly what this agreement is meant to achieve.

[raldi]

Replace "inventor" with "inventor's employer", and your comment refers to the status quo. Are we supposing inventors to be resistant to greed?