The authors of the passages would be most likely to agree that software companies would be well advised to

jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com on October 31, 2020

Hi I am not an instructor but I can point to you the line references supporting the correct answer A from both passages.

Passage A line 16-23: “Large technology companies have responded to this proliferation of bad patents with the patent equivalent of nuclear stockpiling. By obtaining hundreds or even thousands of patents, a company can develop a credible deterrent against patent lawsuits: if someone sues it for patent infringement, it can find a patent the other company has infringed and countersue.” This supports author’s view that amassing their own portfolio of patents as possible counterclaims against companies who sue software company for patent violation.

Passage B line 54-56: “One defense against such misuse is to develop a corresponding portfolio of software patents for defensive purposes.” This is similar in idea to line 16-23 of passage A which suggests that software companies should amass a portfolio of patents for defensive purposes in legal lawsuits.

You have a legitimate concern about the last paragraph of Passage A. The last paragraph of Passage A states author’s view that it is expensive and not feasible in practice to find and license all software patents that a software company is infringing even if the software company does try to not infringe any patent laws. Thus, software companies have no choice but to do what answer A suggests: that is, building a defensive strategy of amassing their own portfolio of software patents for counterclaim purposes.

I hope that I explained it correct. Please feel free to correct me. Thank you very much.