The double-edged sword of patents

When we launched Yahoo! Podcasts last year, we put together a quite impressive list of patents to file for. On the one hand, it's cool to have patents in your name. And at Yahoo!, there's a bonus for patents filed. And it's good for Yahoo! So I'm a big fan of patents.

However, they are a *huge* time-suck. Each one requires a number of discussions with attorney's, and at the very least reading a 50 page legal document for each, if not writing sections of it. I am *still* doing patent work for Yahoo! Podcasts, from 9 months ago. Craziness.

And in the meantime my team has put together a list of potential patents (not all of which we'll file, thank God) for stuff we've worked on since then that's more than twice as long as the list from Y! Podcasts.

But it's hard to complain when you get a bonus check in the mail.