So there is a big incentive to find out as little as possible about the prior art. But that doesn't mean his patent will stand up to a court challenge. Walker takes care not to portray himself as a litigant in waiting. When I asked him in a conversation about two months ago whether he plans to pursue a host of patent infringement cases, Walker was conciliatory. We're focused entirely on using our property.
Patents are part of a whole process of creating value.
You can build a business around them yourself, or license the intellectual property. And you'd want to prevent others from copying what you're doing. It all sounds so reasonable. And yet, behind the reasonableness is the scary possibility that an intellectual property samurai can go around patenting every idea that he can paste a serial number on. You almost can't blame him.