OK, now it seems to me that the nature of the patent battle is different when it is “inventor vs inventor” or “corporation vs corporation”.
In a “corporation vs corporation” battle, stupid patents are destroyed at the court.
In an “inventor vs inventor” battle, if the first inventor becomes a successful entrepreneur (or joins forces with one), it becomes an asymmetric “corporation vs other inventors” battle, and the other inventors lose.
So I guess the answer to my original question is: because this time, multiple corporations immediately saw that this is going to be super profitable, so they keep each other in check.
(I suppose if there was some genius in a garage with some revolutionary ideas trying to compete with the established AI companies, he would still get asymmetrically squashed like a bug… maybe using patents, maybe something else.)
OK, now it seems to me that the nature of the patent battle is different when it is “inventor vs inventor” or “corporation vs corporation”.
In a “corporation vs corporation” battle, stupid patents are destroyed at the court.
In an “inventor vs inventor” battle, if the first inventor becomes a successful entrepreneur (or joins forces with one), it becomes an asymmetric “corporation vs other inventors” battle, and the other inventors lose.
So I guess the answer to my original question is: because this time, multiple corporations immediately saw that this is going to be super profitable, so they keep each other in check.
(I suppose if there was some genius in a garage with some revolutionary ideas trying to compete with the established AI companies, he would still get asymmetrically squashed like a bug… maybe using patents, maybe something else.)