You Know you Need to Reform Patent Law when…
Google just bought Motorola mobility for 12+ BILLION dollars. It would appear that they purchased the company not because there is significant synchronization and economies of scale, not because it was the right thing to do, but instead because of significant patent warchests that would allow Google to defend itself in court:
Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies - Larry Page
This is (excuse the pun) patently ridiculous. It’s not good for the economy, not good for innovation, and certainly doesn’t set a good precedent for up and coming firms that are looking to innovate. It’s tough to pay an army of lawyers when you’re just trying to keep the lights on and get VC backing.
As always, it will be interesting to see how this plays out in court, and what its impact on the mobile marketplace will be in the medium term.
Congress: please take a shot at reform - well, OK maybe after you reform yourselves.
Mark Cuban: If you want to see more jobs created, change patent laws
Every technology company I have is getting hit by patent lawsuits that are the biggest bunch of bullshit ever. Every week it seems like a new one comes up. Between having to pay our lawyers a lot of money to review each, to increasing insurance rates and settlement costs because we can’t afford to pay to fight the nonsense, it’s an enormous expense. So much so that money that would have gone to new hires to improve and sell the product has to be saved to pay to deal with this bullshit…Patent law is killing job creation.
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A strategy consultant with a passion for IT, geopolitics, economics, and the open ocean. Awed by simple, innovative solutions to difficult problems. This represents my favorite slices of the web and serves as networked storage for my brain which is now entirely pointer-based. Opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent those of any organization with which I may or may not be allegedly associated.
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