This is basically why I'm confused with the "defensive" patent phrase. It seems to completely ignore the whole purpose of patents in the first place. Either we get rid of software patents wholesale, or we accept the consequences of software patents are this.
Lets say a company develops a 5% increase in efficiency for an engine. They patent it, a competitor reverse engineers it and releases a product. Fundamentally this is the same protected thing that happens with software right now. How a "defensive patent wielding tech company" should behave here makes zero sense. Not asserting patent in this case, even if the 5% increase here say was to just not burn as lean or whatever (lets assume this is obvious but not often in use for this thought experiment), they were the first to market and seemingly have a patent right to a temporary monopoly.
I really think patents are overblown in the tech community, note I don't mean they aren't a problem for things like a small company. Their impact is very real and substantial. However my personal feelings for them aside on their ethical and societal impact, I don't see how companies should react any differently with our current patent structure.
You are confused because you assume that software patents are normal patents. They aren't. Software should not be patentable. In practice software patents cause more harm than any possible benefits they supposedly bring to innovation. Therefore companies should avoid using them for aggression.
Compare it to weapons. Weapons are used for warfare, aren't they? But do you think using nuclear weapons is a sane thing to do? No. But they are still weapons, right? Same thing with software patents. They are patents, but they are not sane to use. Today patents are used as weapons, therefore aggression / defense analogy is very appropriate. And aggressors are the bad guys.
I don't think all software patents can be lumped together.
Patenting an algorithm seems bad. Because it's not really a mechanism, it's discovered more than created.
But human-computer interactions seem more like mechanisms. It's software that requires a human touch, and it makes it more like dealing with a physical object. Software patents in this area seem more appropriate.
None of them should exist including those for human interaction with the computer. Do your really think such things like "pinch to zoom" and "edge bounce" deserve to be patentable? The problem is in defining what software patent is to begin with, which gives room for patent aggressors to bypass restrictions (like it happens in Europe).
Lets say a company develops a 5% increase in efficiency for an engine. They patent it, a competitor reverse engineers it and releases a product. Fundamentally this is the same protected thing that happens with software right now. How a "defensive patent wielding tech company" should behave here makes zero sense. Not asserting patent in this case, even if the 5% increase here say was to just not burn as lean or whatever (lets assume this is obvious but not often in use for this thought experiment), they were the first to market and seemingly have a patent right to a temporary monopoly.
I really think patents are overblown in the tech community, note I don't mean they aren't a problem for things like a small company. Their impact is very real and substantial. However my personal feelings for them aside on their ethical and societal impact, I don't see how companies should react any differently with our current patent structure.