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Nathan Myhrvold Live Q&A

Posted by samzenpus on from the ask-what-you-will dept.

Last week we announced that co-founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures, Nathan Myhrvold, had agreed to do a live Q&A. Earlier today we posted a few of his answers, but now's your chance to hear it directly from him. Mr. Myhrvold will be answering your questions below until 12:30 PDT. Please keep it to one question per post so everyone gets a chance. Update: 04/03 19:41 GMT by S : 12:30pm PDT has come and gone, and Mr. Myhrvold has to move on. Thanks for the answers! Here's a link to his user page if you'd just like to read his responses.

27 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Better funding for the USPTO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In your responses earlier today, you said, "The patent office has had funding issues. In recent years Congress has raided the patent office fees and taken them to spend elsewhere rather than let them be used to improve the patent office."

    How do you think additional funding could be best spent? A friend of mine is a patent lawyer for a private firm, and he tells me they have a massive advantage over the USPTO workers because they're highly specialized and they work for companies who can afford to hire talent. Would boosting USPTO salaries help? Do they need better infrastructure?

    1. Re:Better funding for the USPTO? by NMyhrvold · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Short answer is hiring more patent examiners in topics that are overloaded. Longer answer is better IT infrastructure and other things. In Congress this issue is known as "fee diversion" - diverting patent fees from the patent office to other purposes

    2. Re:Better funding for the USPTO? by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      " better IT infrastructure and other things"

      I feel like "build more infrastructure" is the thing people (not necessarily you) say when then want to spend money but don't actually know what to spend it on.

      What specifically are you thinking of? Is the patent office still using slide rules? Are they having trouble buying Word for their computers? Do they need a couple million to build a custom workflow application? What kind of infrastructure are you thinking?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  2. Dinosaur Project by Joe+U · · Score: 2

    How did your dinosaur sound project turn out?

    1. Re:Dinosaur Project by NMyhrvold · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think what you mean is that I wrote a paper many years ago (1997?) that showed through computer modeling that sauropod dinosaurs (i.e. apatosaurus) could whip their tails and crack them like bullwhips. The crack is actually a sonic boom! So they were the first creatures to break the sound barrier (not Chuck Yeager). The paper has been pretty widely accepted in the paleontology community. I have been meaning to build a physical model (not full scale) to test it empirically, but have been busy with other tihngs, including other dinosaur projects.

  3. What should everyone know about cooking? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Mr. Myhrvold:

    I have some thoughts on your patent activities, but a) it's complex, and b) probably nothing you haven't heard before or that would suddenly make you repent and start your life over ;)

    So instead, I'd like to hear about cooking. I enjoy cooking, but I realize I'm a duffer, and keep finding small improvements from random sources (YouTube, relatives, friends, books) of the "why didn't I think of that?" variety. Is there any advice that you think the average non-cook should hear based on your non-conventional approach?

    1. Re:What should everyone know about cooking? by NMyhrvold · · Score: 5, Interesting

      This isn't an easy question to answre quickly, but here goes... First, there are a lot of cool new books on scientifically inspired cooking besides my books. Science of Cooking (by cook's illustrated), and Cooknig for Geeks are two examples. Ideas in Food is acool blog and they also have books that are relevant. Second, buy a digital thermometer - they are like $20 for a cheap one and $70 for the best ones. You need to understand tempertaures. A digital scale is the second thing I recomment - it is much easier to weigh ingredients than using cups and spoons.

  4. Let's get down to the core of the issues... by I.M.O.G. · · Score: 2

    Would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses, or one horse-sized duck? And Why?

    --
    Overclockers
    1. Re:Let's get down to the core of the issues... by NMyhrvold · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Well, it turns out that there were horse sized birds at many points in the past - particularly the elephant bird of madagascar, the moa of new zealand and the "terror birds" which lived in ancient south america. Also, ancient (several millions years ago) horses were pretty small - some probably did have goose-sized ponies.... They were mean, so I would much rather face duck sized horses.

  5. Why you? by Beefpatrol · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why do you think Slashdot chose you over other for a live Q&A?

    1. Re:Why you? by NMyhrvold · · Score: 5, Funny

      For every Neo there is an Agent Smith???

  6. Court education? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As patents become more complex and arcane (or at least about inventions that are more complex and more arcane), do you think we can expect the judicial system to accurately evaluate their validity? There have been cases recently where justices and jurors have clearly been in over their head with regard to understanding how patented software claims work, and software isn't getting any simpler. Hardware, too, is becoming difficult for hobbyists to comprehend, yet we expect a few weeks of testimony to make people competent to judge patent validity. If you don't think it's a problem at this point, do you think it will be in the future?

    1. Re:Court education? by NMyhrvold · · Score: 5, Insightful

      THis is a problem for our justice system in general, inculding patents. Even in criminal matters things like DNA testimony and other scientific evidence can be hard to understand. Patents is even worse because iti s about high tech areas. The way this is handled at present is via expert witnesses that try to explain the techology in terms that he judge and jury can relate to. It does not always work. Here is a odd but true thing - you cannot be a patent attorney without having an engineering or science degree, but that isn't applied to the judge or jury. So, I agree that this is a challenge. In some other areas of the law where things are complex - like taxes or bankruptcy there are special courts with judges that do have expertise in the area. That was disucssed during the recent patent reform debate in congress - but it did not make it in the bill.

  7. update... by darue · · Score: 3, Interesting

    any comment on developments regarding the geoengineering patent?

    1. Re:update... by NMyhrvold · · Score: 5, Interesting

      We have several geoengineering ideas that we have invented and filed patents on. The patents are making their way through the system, and some have issued. However we only filed for the patents so that we *might* have some say in how this technology is used. THe big issue for geoengineering is that there is virtually no research funding. I would not want to deploy any system without doing lots of reseach, but so far this is not an area that has been funded by the government. Menawhile essentially zero progress has been made toward making sufficient cuts in CO2 emission. So current course and speed we will have a climate problem. Climate scientists differ as to whether that problem will be serious in 5 years, 20 or 100 years but it will occur. I think that society will procrastinate until things get bad, and at that point geoengineering will be the only way to prevent serious enviornmental damage. But we'll see...

  8. Home OS by Sparticus789 · · Score: 2

    What operating systems do you have installed on your personal computers?

    --
    sudo make me a sandwich
    1. Re:Home OS by NMyhrvold · · Score: 3, Funny

      Seriously?? Windows mostly! I started working on it in 1986 and didn't stop until I left MS in 1999. So I have some loyalty. That said, the HVAC system in my house runs on Linux system....

  9. Future Tech? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Given how much you deal with new inventions, what tech do you see taking the world by storm in the next 5-10 years? Will wearable computing make as big of a mark as smartphones? How about autonomous cars?

    1. Re:Future Tech? by NMyhrvold · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Metamaterials is one area that we are into very deeply that I think will have huge application. Look it up - it is very cool.

  10. food world and software patent world by waddgodd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Since you've lived in both the food world and the software patent world, can you draw any parallels between cooks and their recipes and software engineers and their code WRT IP law and tradition?

    --
    Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
    1. Re:food world and software patent world by NMyhrvold · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It turns out that copyright law covers code, but it does NOT cover a recipe! If you write a cookbook, the actual text is covered by copyright but the proportions of the ingredients and steps are not covered if you put them in different words. Patents do apply to food, but only for things that are really novel. Dippin' dots ice cream is covered by a patent. Kind of a sick story - the guy who invented it worked in a plant that froze bull semen in liquid nitrogen - it made little balls, so he tried ice cream. Turns out it tastes better....

  11. Making sure inventors are fairly paid by yinmoneyhuang · · Score: 2

    In an answer to a previous question, you expressed concern that inventors are not fairly paid for their work because most, if not all, of the profit from inventions goes to the companies that employ them. This concern seems to be valid insofar as most people who are skilled in science and technology work for companies or universities, which generally require employees to sign "assignment of invention" agreements. To the extent that IV is intended to free inventors from the need to "sign away" the economic value of their inventions in exchange for a steady job, how does IV plan to change this traditional bargain? Under your vision of an "economically ideal" situation for patents, would inventors work for IV as opposed to traditional employers? Would IV fund independent research by inventors in exchange for a fraction of subsequent patent licensing fees? I'd like to know what concrete arrangements you have in mind.

    1. Re:Making sure inventors are fairly paid by NMyhrvold · · Score: 2

      At IV the inventors get a profit share in patents they invent. Actually, in most universities that is true too. Typical university policy is that of the royalties the university gets, about 1/3 goes to the professor or grad students. In start ups the inventors typically have stock or options and thus have a stake in the company getting revenues. Independent inventors own their patents outright. I think that the more we can show that invention make money for the corporate or institutional owners the more pressure there will be share with the inventor. That is what happened with stock options - it becomes a competitive thing to get the best people.

  12. technology adiction by darue · · Score: 2

    any thoughts on how to make mobile info tech less addictive? We know it's constantly tickling the reward system, and people increasingly feel significant anxiety when separated from their devices. Do you see any reason at all to think we're not just inventing the ultimate conditioning tool? Particularly once we go to continuous input via say gGlass.

  13. Giving it all up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    According to your wikipedia page you like nature photography. Have you ever considered embracing your inner Thoreau and giving it all up to live a simpler life in the woods?

  14. Make polluters pay by Halo1 · · Score: 2

    What would your opinion be on a system whereby patent applicants would have to pledge a certain amount of money (possibly via escrow) that is paid out to anyone (either the patent office or a third party) that finds prior art that invalidates the patent? The amount of money would rise as more and/or broader claims are added to the patent application.

    Right now, potential victims of invalid patents have to choose between ignoring the patent and hoping they'll never get sued/threatened, or preemptively have to spend (less than in case it would come to a court case) time and money on finding evidence to invalidate patents that should not be or have been granted in the first place. It's a lose/lose situation.

    --
    Donate free food here
  15. Misreading company name by Alain+Williams · · Score: 2

    Why do I keep on misreading his company name as: Intellectual Vultures ?