Almost Every Company Is A Software Company
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| An enormous number of programmers are employed in organizations we don't
| think of as software firms, developing custom applications for the internal
| use of their employers. In a sense, every company of non-trivial size is a
| software company.
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http://techdirt.com/articles/20080305/130159450.shtml
Tech leader assesses state of innovation in valley
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| In a nutshell, basically, the bill weakens patents across the board. The
| presumption is that, OK, we've got patent trolls, and we need to go and stop
| these guys from asserting weak patents against companies (to) gum up the
| works. In any ecosystem, there's always going to be parasites, and I consider
| patent trolls to be parasites.
`----
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_8511500?nclick_check=1
Patents on video game mechanics to strangle innovation, fun
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| At first blush, patents on gameplay mechanics are a good idea; they allow the
| creators of these ideas to profit from them. The issue is that the patents
| are so becoming so broad, and so prohibitive to fight in court, that very
| basic ideas are being locked down by a few companies.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080309-patents-on-video-game-mechanics-may-strangle-innovation.html
Threats (Subversive and Otherwise) to GNU/Linux Growth
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| Looking ahead, GNU/Linux will continue to evolve very fast. No other
| highly-distributed programming project thrives in development by a group so
| large and so highly motivated. It has become apparent, however, that some of
| the challenges to address along the way are more than just technical.
`----
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3732911 (Disclosure: I wrote
it)
Related:
Ending software patents: Has the time come?
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| The End Software Patents Web site, here, highlights a long list of diverse
| businesses that have been sued for allegedly infringing software patents,
| including the Green Bay Packers, OfficeMax, Caterpillar, Kraft Foods , ADT
| Security Services, AutoNation, Wal-Mart , Walgreen , Barnes & Noble, Circuit
| City Stores , Ford Motor , E I du Pont de Nemours and Co. , and so on. In
| most cases, the companies have been sued because of certain basic, routine
| functions performed on their Web sites — the way images are displayed, the
| way data is gathered or transmitted — which are said to infringe software
| patents.
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http://legalpad.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/02/28/ending-software-patents-has-the-time-come/?source=yahoo_quote
Here Comes Trouble: An Antidote to Software Patents
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| The $250 million Vonage burned through as a result of the patent lawsuit
| brought by Verizon et al provides yet another example of why patents for
| business processes implemented on computers (a.k.a. software patents) deserve
| to die. Verizon’s two successful “name translation” patents negate an open
| standard assembled by Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Intel and Vocaltec via the VoIP
| Forum during 1996. The threat of patent litigation cleared the landscape of
| independent VoIP companies the VoIP Forum sought to make possible.
`----
http://gigaom.com/2008/01/18/here-comes-trouble-an-antidote-to-software-patents/
Microsoft Wins in Supreme Court; AT&T Ruling Overturned
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| In a stunning 7-1 decision with extremely broad implications in
| the field of patents and patentability, the US Supreme Court has
| overturned a Federal Circuit ruling that was in favor of AT&T,
| and has apparently affirmed Microsoft's arguments that software
| coupled with the device on which the software is installed
| cannot be considered patentable.
`----
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Wins_in_Supreme_Court_ATT_Ruling_Overturned/1177944397
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