Re: Innovation
Roger Bowler <rogerbowler-/[email protected]> Mon, 28 May 2012 12:58:37 +0200
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On 26/05/2012 20:21, ron.hilton wrote:
> I guess I will reiterate my earlier suggestion to create a Hercules patent
> commons. Patents are the only commercially meaningful metric of innovation,
> and the only asset ever likely to offer any negotiating leverage with IBM.
Ron,
I'm sure you are right. But patents are a rich man's game.
You have generously offered to handle the initial filing, but subsequent
costs of obtaining a patent have been estimated here at US$10,000. Bearing
in mind that IBM have already threatened Hercules with approximately 170
patents, my guess is that one patent is not going to be sufficient to
counter that. We must be talking about a minimum portfolio of say 10 or 20
patents to have any chance of counterbalancing such an arsenal. So we are
already talking about figures in the US$100,000 to US$200,000 range.
And we cannot ignore the cost of litigation. There doesn't seem much point
in taking out patents if IBM knows we don't have the money to defend them.
IBM have for all practical purposes a bottomless well of funds for legal
expenses, and we have seen from previous cases (PSI, TurboHercules) that
their tactic is to spin out the case with complex legal arguments until the
opponent runs out of money and gives up. Legal fees in recent cases have
been estimated to be in the millions of US$.
Who is going to put up this sort of money? Not the Herculeans, that's for
sure. The only companies which can underwrite this sort of cost are the
mega corporations - HP, EMC, Microsoft, Google. But these companies have as
their objective the acquisition of intellectual property rights, and they
would require that ownership of the patents be assigned to them as part of
any funding deal. You would have to come up with a pretty novel argument to
persuade any of these companies to put up money to give away the IP to a
patent commons.
Sorry if I sound negative, but I do believe that the system is heavily
stacked against the small inventor. The mega corporations, while happy to
draw freely from the abundant well of open source, act as if only they have
the right to commercialize and profit from innovation.
Regards,
Roger Bowler
Hercules "the people's mainframe"
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<p>On 26/05/2012 20:21, ron.hilton wrote:<br>
> I guess I will reiterate my earlier suggestion to create a Hercules patent<br>
> commons. Patents are the only commercially meaningful metric of innovation,<br>
> and the only asset ever likely to offer any negotiating leverage with IBM.<br>
<br>
Ron,<br>
<br>
I'm sure you are right. But patents are a rich man's game.<br>
<br>
You have generously offered to handle the initial filing, but subsequent <br>
costs of obtaining a patent have been estimated here at US$10,000. Bearing <br>
in mind that IBM have already threatened Hercules with approximately 170 <br>
patents, my guess is that one patent is not going to be sufficient to <br>
counter that. We must be talking about a minimum portfolio of say 10 or 20 <br>
patents to have any chance of counterbalancing such an arsenal. So we are <br>
already talking about figures in the US$100,000 to US$200,000 range.<br>
<br>
And we cannot ignore the cost of litigation. There doesn't seem much point <br>
in taking out patents if IBM knows we don't have the money to defend them. <br>
IBM have for all practical purposes a bottomless well of funds for legal <br>
expenses, and we have seen from previous cases (PSI, TurboHercules) that <br>
their tactic is to spin out the case with complex legal arguments until the <br>
opponent runs out of money and gives up. Legal fees in recent cases have <br>
been estimated to be in the millions of US$.<br>
<br>
Who is going to put up this sort of money? Not the Herculeans, that's for <br>
sure. The only companies which can underwrite this sort of cost are the <br>
mega corporations - HP, EMC, Microsoft, Google. But these companies have as <br>
their objective the acquisition of intellectual property rights, and they <br>
would require that ownership of the patents be assigned to them as part of <br>
any funding deal. You would have to come up with a pretty novel argument to <br>
persuade any of these companies to put up money to give away the IP to a <br>
patent commons.<br>
<br>
Sorry if I sound negative, but I do believe that the system is heavily <br>
stacked against the small inventor. The mega corporations, while happy to <br>
draw freely from the abundant well of open source, act as if only they have <br>
the right to commercialize and profit from innovation.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
Roger Bowler<br>
Hercules "the people's mainframe"<br>
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