Found+READ: Comments on stories by Narendra Rocherolle

iguessimjustgonna read — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:40:01 GMT

it seems like even if you do patent
it’s never going to be as solid as you want since it costs so much and i guess from what i know (not much) you then open yourself up to p[eople with more money that can look at yours and expand off it and make it more or less a stronger theirs.. and i’m just down for the movement.. so it’s tricky’ but welcome to greed power life hi okay back to work everyone!

nobody nobody — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:48:32 GMT

Well the patent fight over push email RIM vs. NTP was settled for $632 million.

‘nuf said.

Jason Lemkin — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 03:45:31 GMT

I believe for a start-up, the highest value of patents is defensive, not offensive. Your competitors will be larger than you for a long, long time. Are they litigious? If so, when you hit an inflection point, they will at least threaten you if they believe they have a strong IP position (true or not). They may even try suing you. You can’t stop them. But if you have no chips, it will be much harder to dissuade them.

Kevin Donaldson — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 20:22:21 GMT

Last year when I was working on a startup idea, I went to a IP/Patent presentation by a local law firm. They went through all the basic aspects, but the one comment that stuck out in my memory from the ‘panel of experts was’: Provisional Patent translates to ‘copy it quick’:)

Brian Hoecht — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 09:40:57 GMT

For the past decade I have been at the forefront of my industry in terms of effective software design. My companies and I have created many inventions along the way and I frequently hear “you really are where the market is going.”

There are several means of competing in any given market. Arming yourself with patents and lawyers is one way, but to me it feels too much like a restriction on fair trade and insecurity in yourself to continue to improve. Maybe it is different outside of software where there are end-state inventions, but software is an intellectual construct and to me, is never really “done.”

Continually pushing the envelope to “innovate or die” is another way to compete and my preferred method. Going this way has the added benefit that your competitors don’t get an otherwise hard to get, free behind-the-scenes peak at your strategy and designs.

Can I ward off others who claim I’ve infringed. Most definitely.

A) I don’t do patent research so the inventions are mine (I think it would be an interesting case to argue that someone had invented the same thing as someone else, yet only the one with a patent had the right to use it).
B) While ignorance of the law only protects from “willingly” infringed, I have the added defense of having studied (and documented in my business plans) the competitive behaviors and methods in the industry before beginning.
C) It hasn’t happened yet, but if/when someone does come claiming infringement, I’ll have the added benefit of revenues from the invention to defend the claim.

Elias Bizannes — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 10:32:31 GMT

I’ve used a case-study to extend Narendra’s argument of how a patent is actually stupid, as it reveals too much information and may hurt their competitive advantage (which is what a patent is meant to protect, right?!)

I did it on Radar Networks, the semantic web company that is meant to be in stealth mode.

http://liako.biz/2007/04/patents-more-harm-than-good/

(Apologies for shameless plug)

Elias Bizannes — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 20:43:45 GMT

I wrote a case-study which extends on Narendra’s argument, of how a patent might actually harm your competitive advantage more than it helps.

I did it on Radar Networks, a stealth mode semantic web company.

http://liako.biz/2007/04/patents-more-harm-than-good/

Neil Squillante — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 07:02:41 GMT

During Web 1.0, patent applications remained confidential until the patent issued.

Regarding the statement about large firms, most lawyers practice in small firms, including many large firm refugees. This country does not have a shortage of patent lawyers (though the USPTO does).

Josh Zeidner — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 05:43:35 GMT

Francine,

Do you think that a lack of Patent protection for consumer-web ideas is a show-stopper for VCs?

Frank Young — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 02:49:45 GMT

It seems that with more and more consumers becoming ‘digitally aware’ that more men and women coming out of Law Schools across the country would think that Patent Law would be a nice area to specialize in. Especially if what you say about bigger firms working with small start-ups is true.