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• We don't really know
  We don't really know how patent reform would affect start-ups. And start-ups are not a monolithic entity. Biotech start-ups are different from those in software, etc. etc. I have spoken with investors, and they suggest that the most important use for patents is to give the new company freedom to operate. Well, if patents are weakened, doesn't *that* in itself offer more space to operate? We have to ask--what are we trying to reward? Some guy who had an idea, or the guy who took that idea and actually employed people, and added wealth to society? The *independent inventors* who are currently rewarded by the system are not always the entrepreneurs who actually bring the product to market, a product that is often quite different from the original idea embodied in the patent. It is a fiction for the independent inventor lobby to be out there creating the fiction that the current bill would make patents valueless, and all ideas capable of pirating. And the "foreign" aspect is clear demagoguery. That said, it is also disingenuous for the large systems vendors to be out there suggesting that "trolls" are wreaking havoc. I believe that sensible patent reform could actually tighten a system that has gotten out of control. I hope that Congress can withstand these appeals to emotion, without too much intelligence behind them.

  September 20, 2007

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