Well, it seems that this one went over a few heads. I won't spoil it by describing what happens in the movie. Watch it. It's a good one.
The quote from the film, in the context of having watched it, describes, with great brevity that actions such as the one being discussed in this thread can actually have negative results. The permutations are many and complex. I'll go over a few:
1- Don't file patents.
As someone said. Google tried this. Didn't work.
2- Don't sue.
Lot's of companies take this approach. I can probably imagine that a company like IBM has so much covered that they could have a whole department doing nothing but suing other companies. They don't seem to be in that business.
Then again, companies like Google have tried to remain outside the fray and, ultimately, had to invest in a $12 billion dollar arsenal to have some protection. Twelve billion dollars. So much wasted.
3- We all have patents and we all sue. Global Thermonuclear Patent War (GTPW): I sue you for everything I can and you counter-sue me with all you got. We go at it for years. I win sometimes and so do you. We burn through tons of cash that could have been used for far more productive pursuits. Progress slows. Nobody wins. Some loose in monumental ways.
4- Innovators with great ideas and drive become afraid of getting anywhere close to the GTPW and instead choose to focus their efforts elsewhere or simply abandon the field.
5- The GTPW is fueled by the failure of the patent system and ignorant politicians to do the right thing. Patents (the weapons of war) are granted to all participants at an ever-increasing rate. The wars escalate and, very soon, it is quite literally impossible to innovate. Attempting to innovate means to create an exposure to litigation and becoming embroiled in your own GTPW.
6- Investors begin to pull back because new ventures --and the money that went into them-- can evaporate in a microsecond if they even skirt the edges of the GTPW.
7- The Chinese don't give a crap about any of this so, while we are all engulfed in GTPW they continue to copy, learn, grow, experiment, build, invest, innovate and advance. Check mate.
8- Western political systems can't get out of its own way to save our own lives, so the situation continues to escalate until there's total meltdown --at which point it is too late.
9- Even in the face of having the gun to our own heads and the trigger partially pulled the western world refuses to act as the adults in the room and we continue, little by little, to pull the triggers that will ultimately destroy our way of life for decades, if not generations.
Then comes the realization:
"Strange game. The only winning move is not to play."
So, you can see now that this short little quote from a geek movie actually is very relevant and excels at summarizing a wide range of scenarios that I've only glanced at. The failures of the patent system and what companies are doing to each other is but one of a myriad of problems created by incompetent governments around the world.
AT&T just had to spend three billion dollars because the government did not want to let it buy T-Mobile. Three billion dollars. What you hear is the huge sucking sound of innovation, jobs and growth leaving the room.
Someone, somewhere, somehow has to take a really good look at what is going on in the western world and start fixing problems right now. The path we are on leads to absolutely nothing that is good. In many ways it might already be too late.