Microsoft practises Realpolitik in China, explains Tom Robertson, its main intellectual-property lawyer in the region.

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"It caused a conflict, " says Michael Cohen, an intellectual-property lawyer from Beverly Hills.

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"This really was a huge step forward toward survivability and viability, " says Jonathan Pink an intellectual-property lawyer at Bryan Cave LLP.

WSJ: In Shift, Pinterest Says to Pin Your Own Stuff

But even if a company doesn't want to back down, "it may not be worth the money to fight, " said Marc Reiner, an intellectual-property lawyer in New York.

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"The Festo case has a much wider economic impact than Napster does, since many patents will no longer be capable of enforcement, " says Edward Fiorito, an intellectual-property lawyer in Dallas.

FORBES: Me-Too Patents

"The Festo case has a much wider economic impact than Napster does, since many patents will no longer be capable of enforcement, " says Edward Fiorito, an intellectual-property lawyer in Dallas, Texas.

FORBES: Me-too patents

This is simpler, faster and cheaper than the lawyer-intensive process of negotiating bilateral licences for intellectual property, the high cost of which discriminates against small companies, leaves patents unused on the shelf and hampers innovation.

ECONOMIST: An intellectual-property exchange

Once trapped in the network, that lawyer might enroll in a seminar on intellectual property or subscribe to the Web-based Tech Law Center.

FORBES: Rewriting the law

Stalwarts of the industrial revolution such as Thomas Newcomen, a West Country engineer, rub shoulders with John Locke, a political philosopher, and Edward Coke, a lawyer and jurist who did much to shape the common-law traditions of intellectual property.

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