Sunday, September 16, 2007

Patents stifle innovation and competition

Its long been known to most that patents are bad for business. The software business in particular suffers a great deal: Ridiculous patents such as “One click ordering” (Amazon) and other such totally obvious methods can from that point onwards only be done by the company who filed the patent. Patents are relatively easily obtained, since the patent officers are overworked and not particularly smart, leaving the true patent evaluation in courts by opposing patent lawyers, which is obviously really expensive. Consequently, larger companies with dedicated legal staff can easily bully a small company out of business or out of using a key method, rendering them uncompetitive. Simply because fighting a totally ridiculous patent is too expensive. The latest trend is the emergence of Patent Trolls – Companies formed by lawyers that buy a number of old patents and institute proceedings to all and sundry as a business model.

But wait there is hope! The US senate is to discuss and decide about a possible patent reform. Lets hope they see sense… Read more

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rubbish!

as far I know you own a couple of patents as well. For example auto white listing etc.

So stop this bla bla please.

Nick Galea said...

The posts is not against patents, its against:

a. trivial patents
b. using patent litigation as a business model.

I dont have any patents personally, but yes i filed several patents in the name of GFI whilst CEO at GFI. However, they were intended as potential defense mechanisms rather then anything else.

Oh and publish your name next time please :-)