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David Megginson wrote:
> Intellectual property is a checklist item for investors (especially
> venture capitalists), so there's enormous pressure on small tech
> startups to patent something -- *anything* --
Just as investors often "require" patents, they also require
disclosure of patents that one potentially infringes and proof that
you've looked for them. The impact, of course, is that innovation is
compromised as young, fragile startups are forced to spend time
proving to their potential investors that someone's patents are bogus.
Of course, even in the case where the silliness of a patent is pretty
obvious, the investors are still nervous about the costs of one day
defending against the silliness. The result is that startups end up
spending money, time, resource, energy, defending against silly
patents when they should be pouring everything into building new and
innovative methods of their own.
bob wyman
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