January 30, 2010
Do Patents Slow Down Innovation?
I had a very interesting meeting yesterday with an MIT Professor who I’ve known for a long time. He is anti-software patent, as am I. However, he suggested something I ...
January 12, 2010
Proposal: An Independent Inventor Defense Against Software Patents
Brad Burnham at Union Square Ventures put up a very important post last night titled We need an independent invention defense to minimize the damage of aggressive patent trolls. His ...
December 18, 2009
Score Two Wins Against Software Patents
I have to keep reminding myself that some things just take a long time. My rampage against software patents continues and, while my efforts around the StartupVisa have dominated my ...
November 10, 2009
My Field Trip To The Supreme Court
I had an incredible experience yesterday. My friend Phil Weiser, who is now the Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (I prefer to call ...
August 31, 2009
The Drumbeats Against Software Patents Are Getting Louder
There is a great article by Timothy Lee, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, out today titled The Case against Literary (and Software) Patents. Lee, an adjunct scholar at ...
August 12, 2009
A Patent Ban on Microsoft Word and a Haiku
I haven’t written about software patents in a while. I still hate them and think they are an illogical construct. But first, a haiku from xkcd to warm you up ...
July 2, 2009
The Unbearable Stupidity of Some Patents
If I told you that I had just filed a patent for “a system to sell equity in domain names”, I’d expect you to laugh at me. I haven’t ranted ...
October 31, 2008
Bye Bye Business Method Patents
While it’s not over yet as the Supreme Court might weight in, the Federal Court Kills Patents on Business Methods. I haven’t read things carefully yet (I’ll leave that for ...
August 28, 2008
Om, That’s Actually "You Gotta Be Fucking Kidding Me"
Om Malik discovered that Microsoft has received a new and exciting patent on "page up and page down." It was issued on 8/19/08. I just read the summary and this ...
August 21, 2008
In The Stupid Patent Advertising Category
It’s DNC time in Denver and all kinds of weird advertisements are popping up all over the place, including the airport. My partner Jason sent me a photo of this ...
August 6, 2008
Patents, Commons, and Anti-Commons
Yippee – the criticism of the software patent stupidity is starting to heat up and some really smart people are making both useful arguments about the issues and interesting proposals ...
July 1, 2008
Can You Patent The Idea of Recommending Contacts in a Social Network?
Microsoft is trying to. It’s up on PeerToPatent and you can comment on this patent application (and the USPTO will presumably listen to you) if you’d like to help keep ...
June 30, 2008
The Emergence of Defensive Patent Commons
Today’s Wall Street Journal has an article titled Tech Giants Join Together To Head Off Patent Suits. It describes the efforts of a new organization named Allied Security Trust who’s ...
May 23, 2008
Success Pending
Josh Kopleman at First Round Capital has an excellent post up titled Depending on pending… I’m going out to lunch at the Rio today and having a margarita to celebrate ...
May 6, 2008
All Decisions on Patent Disputes Since 2000 Might Be Invalid
When I read the NY Times Article In One Flaw, Questions on Validity of 46 Judges my immediate response was to break out laughing. Then I said – out loud ...