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How Patents Are Harming Small Companies Too
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| One of the more annoying things about the whole debate on patent reform is
| that some have tried to position it as "small companies" vs. "big companies."
| That's not even close to true. While there have been plenty of high profile
| fights between patent holders vs. big companies, that's only a small part of
| the issue. And, in fact, it's often smaller, more innovative companies that
| are the most harmed by patents. Joe Mullin has a great post looking at how
| small mom-and-pop photo sharing sites are being hit with a bunch of patent
| infringement lawsuits.
|
| [...]
|
| What about the guy who can put a bunch of different ideas together to make a
| much better product, but is unable to because multiple patent holders all
| want a huge % of his earnings? Time and time again we hear stories of small
| businesses who feel the patent system is holding them back in significant
| ways -- and it's a true shame.
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http://techdirt.com/articles/20090601/0007575076.shtml
OASIS Protects Open Source Developers From Software Patents
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| Some of you may remember a fuss that was made a few years ago by some open
| source people over the copyright and patent policy used by OASIS, the
| computer protocols standards body. OASIS seems to have taken it to heart,
| because it has today announced what looks to me like the perfect basis for
| technology standards in an open source world.
|
| Their new rules include a new "mode" which standards projects can opt into
| using. In this new mode, all contributors promise that they will not assert
| any patents they may own related to the standard the project is defining.
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http://blogs.sun.com/webmink/entry/oasis_protects_open_source_developers
Recent:
What use are research patents?
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| In any case, I'm not buying David's assertion that "most universities", or
| most hospitals or research institutes for that matter, rely heavily on
| licensing income. And that being so, I am also somewhat skeptical about the
| number of researchers' families being supported by patents.
|
| What's the Open Science connection? Well, if you're interested in patenting
| the results of your research, there are a lot of restrictions on how you can
| disseminate your results. You can't keep an Open Notebook, or upload
| unprotected work to a preprint server or publicly-searchable repository, or
| even in many cases talk about the IP-related parts of your work at
| conferences. It seems from the data above that most universities would not be
| losing much if they gave up chasing patents entirely; nor would they be
| risking much future income, since so few seem to get significant funds from
| licensing.
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http://www.sennoma.net/main/archives/2009/06/what_use_are_research_patents.php
Time to rethink intellectual property laws?
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| Conversely, there is widespread anecdotal evidence that the act created a
| mind-set among many researchers that their knowledge represents a potential
| goldmine not to be shared with potential competitors (i.e. those working in
| other universities) - at least until it has been protected by a patent
| application.
|
| Similarly, the act has led to a flood of “upstream” patents on basic
| scientific knowledge, leading to what some commentators describe as a
| virtually impenetrable “patent thicket” blocking small-scale inventors from
| marketing their products. For example, restrictive software patents limit
| further development and commercialisation in the field of information
| technology.
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http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=8543&page=
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