On Thu, 2011-03-10 at 09:37 -0800, Cédric Beust ♔ wrote: [ . . . ] > Speaking of which: imagine you live in a world where software patents > don't exist. Would you join one? Would you create one?
What a nice place to be :-) > How would you feel about the fact that as soon as the product that > your start up is based on becomes even moderately public, anyone can > copy it? Are you that confident that you can keep ahead of this > competition? Would you leave your day job to join a start up that > won't be able to protect its software innovations? Anyone can copy a UI anyway, what matters is the semantics behind. Contract law and commercial secrecy is the way to protect algorithms and proprietary software, not patents. I did two startups (yes even in the UK such things are possible just -- it is so much easier in the US) ten and six years ago. In both we chose not to pursue patents but to rely on contracts and secrecy. Reasons: 1. Cost. Patents are the joy of lawyers and accountants and the bane of technologists: technologists pay lots of money to lawyers for little gain. 2. Timeliness. Patents take 1-2 years, in which time everything has moved on and what was in need of protection is no longer interesting. Anyway you have a web of NDAs that mean you sue using contract law if word gets out. You sue for loss of earning and damages, which can be sizeable even in the UK and astronomical in the US. 3. Publication. Patents require publishing. Publishing means everyone knows and can copy. Patent enforcement keeps lawyers rich for little return unless you are lucky. The likes of IBM, Oracle, Google don't give a damn about patent violation unless the holder is a Big Player, has very deep pockets or it would damage their marketing and image. Big Players simply lawyer the little guys out of existence. Been there, avoided that. The software implementation of innovation where that innovation is to be sold as proprietary goods or proprietary licence is best handled by secrecy and contract law. Having been round the loop twice now, I wouldn't choose any other mechanism. -- Russel. ============================================================================= Dr Russel Winder t: +44 20 7585 2200 voip: sip:[email protected] 41 Buckmaster Road m: +44 7770 465 077 xmpp: [email protected] London SW11 1EN, UK w: www.russel.org.uk skype: russel_winder
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