Patently Messed Up
What is innovation? It’s a simple enough question, except that it is not. Most innovation is synthesis of other ideas. Rare is there something entirely new that is invented. (And even then the argument can be made it is just synthesis.) And, is something really innovation if five other people come up with it concurrently? [...]
Fixing Software Patents, One Hack At Time
Software patents are broken and patent trolls are seriously hurting innovation. Companies are spending more money on buying patents to launch offensive strikes against other companies instead of competing by building great products. There are numerous patent horror stories I could outline where they are being used for all purposes except to innovate. In fact [...]
Nest and HoneyWell
Nest hit a nerve. Thermostats are not the most popular topic for high-tech and Internet blogs – but Nest hit a nerve. Nest offers a thermostat for the home. Probably because it’s a San Francisco start-up, possibly because it has some leadership that once worked at Apple, or possibly because it has a nifty display [...]
NTP is the New SCO
NTP, the shell company whose only business is to extract ransom from real businesses does not sit on the $600 they extorted from RIM. They are now suing just about all the smartphone industry: Apple, Google, HTC, Microsoft, LG and Motorola. Is NTP the new SCO? Related posts: NTP Sues Apple, Google, Microsoft And Others [...]
My New Favorite Old Blog…
Image by TechShowNetwork via Flickr My new favorite old blog is former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, blog. It’s at the old URL, but has a new title: What I Couldn’t Say… The “About” section says: I think I’ve said pretty much everything I could say as CEO of Sun Microsystems. The more interesting stuff was [...]
Finally Some Common Sense: Business Methods Not Patentable
Reuters reports: A U.S. patent appeals court ruled on Thursday that business methods, such as Amazon.com Inc’s one-click to buy goods on the Internet, cannot be patented. This is great news for innovation. Why? I leave the analysis to Techdirt’s supersmart Mike Masnick: Court Greatly Limits Software And Business Method Patents. Related articles by Zemanta [...]
