Magic Leap’s Fallback Plan: Patent Licensing

Rachel Metz, writing for MIT Technology Review:

Few people outside the company have seen the device, let alone tried it. In March, Magic Leap released software tools for developers to start making apps for the device; those without access to the device have to use a software-based simulator to get a sense for what their creations will actually look like through the lenses of the headset.

The company has built up a trove of dozens of patents over the past several years that could be licensed to other companies as a sort of fallback plan if the headset fails.

There’s no “sort of” about it — becoming a patent troll would definitely be a fallback plan.

★ Monday, 9 April 2018