[sparklite2]

I wouldn’t think google is MS’s greatest nightmare, but WDIK?

As to the patent question, how much of the decline could be due to the lower hanging (low tech) fruit already having been picked? Could it be that the more complex technology becomes, the more money and research is required to reach a new level?

[Pelham]

“As to the patent question, how much of the decline could be due to the lower hanging (low tech) fruit already having been picked? “

No, that’s not the problem. The America Invents Act and the PTAB kangaroo court are where the serious damage to small inventors is centered. AIA and PTAB were godsends to entrenched firms, they use them to bleed upstarts to death using an endless series of challenges to already issued patents.

[rightwingcrazy]

“Could it be that the more complex technology becomes, the more money and research is required to reach a new level?”

I think questions like that were asked since the industrial revolution. I remember back in the 1960s the field of optics being considered a dead field for innovation. Settled science. Then came lasers, liquid crystals, LEDs, fiber-optics, optical computing, etc., etc.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

As to the patent question, how much of the decline could be due to the lower hanging (low tech) fruit already having been picked? Could it be that the more complex technology becomes, the more money and research is required to reach a new level?

I'm thinking tech giants are patenting everything they can think of without anything working in order to establish "prior art" on things they haven't really figured out yet.

It would be interesting to know if a lot more patents are being filed today than in the past.