[dba-Tech] Are Patents destroying the computer market

Jim Lawrence accessd at shaw.ca
Wed Mar 27 09:56:22 CDT 2013


Hi All:

There has been some concern of late as to how the obsession of patents could
destroy the computer industry or any industry for that matter.

In 1991, Bill Gates wrote the following:

	In a memo to his senior executives, Bill Gates wrote, "If people had
understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were
invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete
standstill today." Mr. Gates worried that "some large company will patent
some obvious thing" and use the patent to "take as much of our profits as
they want. " ...very prophetic

Consider the following:

"In the smartphone industry alone, according to a Stanford University
analysis, as much as $20 billion was spent on patent litigation and patent
purchases in the last two years -- an amount equal to eight Mars rover
missions. Last year, for the first time, spending by Apple and Google on
patent lawsuits and unusually big-dollar patent purchases exceeded spending
on research and development of new products, according to public filings."

http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20130325/11085322454/crazy-
idea-month-allowing-patents-mathematics.shtml

Jim



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