Tech Giants Bankrolling IP Hoarding Start-Up

theodp writes "Microsoft alum Nathan Myhrvold so strongly believes intellectual property is the next software that he's studying for the patent bar exam. His company, Intellectual Ventures, doesn't actually make anything - only patent attorneys roam the hallways. Myhrvold isn't the only true believer. Microsoft, Intel, Sony, Nokia, Apple, Google, and eBay have contributed to a $350M bankroll which the firm is using to buy up existing patents that can be rented to companies who want to produce real products."

Comments

The sleeper awakens

[Orgazmus]

I really want to recommend the book "Te sleeper awakens" by H.G.Wells
Read it, and then you will see that this is on topic ;)

Re:there goes Google's claim to the moral high gro

[Kenja]

" But isn't Google supposed to be above this sort of crap?"

Dont know what gave you that idea. Its not like they have ever given away their own IP. However they will license it to you for a fee, its almost as if they think that their ideas and work are worth money. How insane is that?

You know what the coolest thing is?

[rsilvergun]

Once of the main reasons for the patent system in the first place was to discourage European style printer's guilds from hoarding all the knowledge. With patents, after a certain amount of time new ideas became publicly available after all. This isn't just perverting the system, this is turning it around 180 degrees. Pretty impressive I'd say.

Re:A more retched hive of scum and villany...

[UranusReallyHertz]

Yeh, cause Marx's ideas have proven to be SO accurate. LOL

Re:Obvious statement

[null etc.]

Great post.

Limited monopoly should only encourage innovation in one situation - where companies must outlay significant resources, time, and money in order to reap the productive yield of their research.

A competitive company will only invest in research if it can gain a competitive advantage from that research. This advantage is diminished when every other company is allowed to copy the productive yield of that research. Patents protect large coporations, such as pharmaceuticals, from losing billions of dollars of research to competitors who instantly copy the results of that research (drugs, in this case).

That being said, a limited monopoly harms innovation when a company is granted the ability to cripple entire industries through the patenting of fundamental, and often obvious, discoveries. This is especially the case when the company does not have to outlay a dime for research - often, the intellectual property is the by-product of an employee who is performing their job, which is usually not to create ideas, but rather to create products which are salable in a given market.

Re:America: Fucking itself in the ear again

[themaidtricks]

So one day your African start-up is merrily going along infringing one or two of Megacorp's patents, and then suddenly Megacorp's "security force" shows up and kills all the workers, burns down the factory, and confiscates the "pirated" material.

Megacorp: 2000384348783 Enterpreneurs: 0

Re: How about Switzerland

[davidbailey]

Welcome to Switzerland! - Neutral in "all" political matters, controlling most of the international banking trade, and now the only country in the world that allows YOU to set up your company and actually do business without worrying about getting sued because you staple your papers on the upper-left side of the page (International Patent #4535788563421) or because you might use "a computer communications language that puts real-time messages into electronic signals", "store computer data in binary-coded, magnetic signals on a rotating platter", "one-click" purchasing, or perhaps the widely-licensed "using flourescent lighting while speaking through a communications device from 9AM to 5PM"! (International Patents #347568902304, #968747834, #235754267 and #96506845982374)

It's back to the good old days of business where you could blow your nose without asking your legal staff if you might be using a technique that would cost millions in licensing fees!

Sell products with the features that make competitive sense, instead of the features you can afford the patents to! Write the software the way you want, using the formulas and functions the most efficient and understandable way! Take advantage of advertising and internal company documents where every other word doesn't have to have (TM), (R), and footnotes listing that you have no actual connection or relationship to the intellectual property and trademark broker (IPTB) "Customer Satisfaction", "Cost-Savings", or "Product Benefits" Corporations!

Selling prime locations in the scenic slums of Geneva for the unbelievable bargain of a mere $10 million per square foot! Imagine what you'll save on lawsuits and licensing fees!

DISCLAIMER: Independents, entrepreneurs, and startup venture capital business worth less than $100 billion need not apply. Military escort through Berne Convention signatory countries not included.

Re:how does this get modded up ?

[westlake]

so there you have it, the kids know so why don't you ? all this company are doing is screwing the USA, the other 191 countries will carry on without you

world trading partners tend to share certain interests and values, among them the principle of reciprocity. Patent Law of the People's Republic of China (Article 18)

Re:Slippery slopes

[fuzza]

As quoted in Lessig's OSCON speech (kudos to whoever made that Flash presentation), Bill Gates has been thinking along these lines for a while:

The solution... is patenting as much as we can... A future startup with no patents of its own will be forced to pay whatever price the giants choose to impose. That price might be high - established companies have an interest in excluding future competitors.

Re:Exports.

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps Italy is using the good original Coke formula with real cane sugar. In the US, soda pop is usually made with much cheaper corn syrup. The net effect of the Coke -> New Coke -> Classic Coke transform was the replacement of sugar with corn syrup. Corn syrup is so cheap because of government programs that heavily subsidize corn production. (Socialism is popular in the US, as long as it's targeted at right wingers and nobody talks about it.)

the european perspective

[n3k5]

When went to Italy a few years ago, I noticed that Coke costs at least 1.5 times as much as it does here -- if you're lucky. I can't imagine that it costs that much more to manufacture it

But it's true, and you can imagine it, you just need to try. Well, okay, part of the reason why Coke is more expensive in Europe is probably because people can and will pay the higher price. But it also is more expensive to manufacture, because, for example, the people who fill it into bottles need to be paid more over here. They have to earn more because their cost of living is higher, because Coke costs more :-)

Now I'm getting even more off topic than I was to begin with, but here's another thought I just had: I think Europeans don't drink as much sweet soda as Americans do. I mostly drink water and juice to kill the thirst, and while I can get foo brand soda at pretty much the same price, 'the real thing(tm)' is more expensive. It's nothing I guzzle all the time, it's almost a bit of a luxury (like chocolate). So the higher price is justified -- firstly to hold up the image (the best cola in the world at a discount price -- unthinkable!), secondly to make up for the lower quantity in which it's consumed over here.

I'm sure only a tiny fraction of the price difference goes back to the USA, but I wouldn't be surprised if the total sum -- over all bottles and cans sold outside the states -- amounted to, well, you know, some pretty huge amount.

Software patents battle ground against...

[3seas]

....Physics of Abstraction (abstraction physics)

Abstraction enters the picture of computing with the representation of physical transistor switch positions of ON '1' and OFF '0' or what we call "Binary" notation. However, computers have far more transistor switches in them than we can keep up with in such a low level or first order abstract manner, so we create higher level abstractions in order to increase our productivity in programming computers. From Machine language to application interfaces that allow users to define some sequence of action into a word or button press (ie. record and playback macro) so to automate a task, we are working with abstractions that ultimately accesses the hardware transistor switches which in turn output to, or control some physical world hardware.

Programming is the act of automating some level of complexity, usually made up of simpler complexities, but done so in order to allow the user to use and reuse the complexity through a simplified interface. And this is a recursive act, building upon abstractions others have created that even our own created abstractions/automations might be used by another to further create more complex automations. In general, if we didn't build upon what those before us have done, we then would not advance at all, but rather be like any other mammal incapable of anything more than, at best, first level abstraction. But we are more, and as such have the natural human right and duty to advance in such a manner.

There is an identifiable and definable "physics of abstraction" (abstraction physics), an identification of what is required in order to make and use abstractions. Abstraction Physics is not exclusive to computing but constantly in use by ... well... us humans. Elements or facets of abstraction physics include the actions of abstraction creation and use, such as defining a word to mean a more complex definition (word = definition, function-name = actions to take, etc.), Starting and Stopping (interfacing with) of an abstraction definition sequence, keeping track of where you are in the progress of abstraction sequence usage (moving from one abstraction to another), defining and changing "input from" direction, defining and changing "output to" direction, getting input to process (using variables or place holders to carry values), sequencially stepping thru abstraction/automation details (inherently includes optionally sending output), looking up the meaning of a word or symbol (abstraction) so to act upon or with it, identifing an abstraction or real item value so to act upon it, and putting constraints upon your abstraction lookups and identifications (when you look up a word in a dictionary you don't start at the beginning of the dictionary, but begin with the section that starts with the first letter then followed by the second, etc., and when you open a box with many items to stock, you identify each so as to know where to put it in stock.)

Abstraction Physics has yet to be established/recognized in a broad "common acceptance" manner, similiar to the difficulty in the acceptance of the hindu-arabic decimal system (which included the concept that nothing can have value - re: the Zero place holder). It took three hundred years (from inception) for the innovation of the now common decimal system to overcome the far more limited Roman Numeral system. (NOTE: mathmatics and the symbol sets used are also abstractions and therefor a subset of abstraction possibilities and certainly an application of abstraction physics.) Though the act of programming is still younger than many who apply it, we are technologically moving at a much faster rate of incorporating innovations and better understandings of reality. There is a physics to abstraction creation and use which can be used to model and create a non-patentable user friendly general use, and dynamic, automation (abstraction creation and usage) tool, that also allows for organized placement and access of abstractions in a logical or mapable and navigateable

Re:Exports.

[bobsalt]

South America is the same way. In fact I believe the US is the only place where corn syrup is used as a sweetener in soft drinks.(anyone know that for a fact?) This is because the price of sugar is kept artificially high due to a few farmers that grow sugar in southern united states by using subsidies on all imported sugar.

We get enough laws written, we'll be just like roman empire was at the end of its days. Its inevitable.

Re:I'd like to thank the USPTO

[lightknight]

I'll see your Wikipedia, and raise you a Merriam-Webster:

One entry found for mercantilism.

Main Entry: mercantilism
Pronunciation: -"tE-"li-z&m, -"tI-, -t&-
Function: noun
1 : the theory or practice of mercantile pursuits : COMMERCIALISM
2 : an economic system developing during the decay of feudalism to unify and increase the power and especially the monetary wealth of a nation by a strict governmental regulation of the entire national economy usually through policies designed to secure an accumulation of bullion, a favorable balance of trade, the development of agriculture and manufactures, and the establishment of foreign trading monopolies
- mercantilist /-list/ noun or adjective
- mercantilistic /"m&r-k&n-"tE-'lis-tik, -"tI-, -t&-/ adjective