Abolish Software Patents

 

I spoke on a panel last week at the Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications Program titled “Re-examining The Patent System.”  My panel was the last one and came after a few hours of stimulating discussion about the problems with patents, the problems with patent reform, and the reason our government is struggling so much with what to do.

When I was at MIT in the 1980’s, copyright and patents were just starting to be a major issue in the personal computer software business.  I vividly remember attending a lecture in one of my classes by the general counsel of Lotus who was suing Borland for copyright infringement between Quattro Pro and Lotus 1–2–3.  This was around the same time that Apple vs. Microsoft / Xerox vs. Apple lawsuits appeared, as well as the nonsense Ashton-Tate vs. Fox Software lawsuit.  Forget about patents – this was about copyright! 

Some of the research I did when I was a doctoral student at MIT was around the sources of innovation in the software industry.  In the late 1980’s, the three primary mechanisms for protecting innovation were copyright, patents, and trade secrets.  Copyrights (as evidenced by the legal action above) was the most active area and I – among many others – thought that copyrights were a problematic way to fundamentally protect software innovation, especially around look and feel (which was all the rage at the time.)  Of course, with the widespread emergence of the GPL and open source, the dynamics of software copyright have changed radically in the past decade, which is likely part of the reason the focus has shifted to patents.

I personally think software patents are an abomination.  My simple suggestion on the panel was to simply abolish them entirely.  There was a lot of discussion around patent reform and whether we should consider having different patent rules for different industries.  We all agreed this was impossible – it was already hard enough to manage a single standard in the US – even if we could get all the various lobbyists to shut up for a while and let the government figure out a set of rules.  However, everyone agreed that the fundamental notion of a patent – that the invention needed to be novel and non-obvious – was at the root of the problem in software. 

I’ve skimmed hundreds of software patents in the last decade (and have read a number of them in detail.)  I’ve been involved in four patent lawsuits and a number of “threats” by other parties.  I’ve had many patents granted to companies I’ve been an investor in.  I’ve been involved in patent discussions in every M&A transaction I’ve ever been involved in.  I’ve spent more time than I care to on conference calls with lawyers talking about patent issues.  I’ve always wanted to take a shower after I finished thinking about, discussing, or deciding how to deal with something with regard to a software patent.

I’ll pause for a second, take a deep breath, and remind you that I’m only talking about software patents.  I don’t feel qualified to talk about non-software patents.  However, we you consider the thought that a patent has to be both novel AND non-obvious (e.g. “the claimed subject matter cannot be obvious to someone else skilled in the technical field of invention”), 99% of all software patents should be denied immediately.  I’ve been in several situations where either I or my business partner at the time (Dave Jilk) had created prior art a decade earlier that – if the patent that I was defending against ever went anywhere – would have been used to invalidate the patent. 

When I made the assertion that we should simply abolish software patents entirely, I noticed a lot of lawyers heads moving vertically up and down.  I took this as a good sign, especially since a number of them had gray hair (and a few were on the earlier panels and sounded very intelligent and experienced, especially for lawyers.)

After wrestling with software patents for the past 15 years, I’ve concluded that there simply is no middle ground.  If we continue on the path we are on, patents will continue to increase in their overall expense to the system, everyone will feel compelled to continue to apply for as many (and as broad) patents as possible, if only for defensive reasons (one of Fred’s VC Cliche’s of the Week was “Patents are like nuclear bombs, you just got to have some.”)  Let’s take a page from geopolitical warfare and focus on global disarmament, rather than mutually assured destruction.

 

HP's Lesjak Inherits Slowing Growth, Job-Search Distractions - Bloomberg

 

Cathie Lesjak, seen here in a 2006 portrait, has taken over Hewlett-Packard Co. temporarily after Mark Hurd quit last week. Source: Bite Communications via Bloomberg

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Aaron Rakers, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., talks with Bloomberg's Lizzie O'Leary and Matt Miller about today's resignation by Hewlett-Packard Co. Chief Executive Officer Mark Hurd and the outlook for the company. Hurd resigned as CEO after an investigation found he had a personal relationship with a contractor who received pay from the company that wasn’t business-related. Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak will take over as interim CEO. (Source: Bloomberg)

Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Hewlett-Packard Co. said Mark Hurd has decided with the Board of Directors to resign as chief executive officer immediately. The board has appointed Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak, 51, as CEO on an interim basis. Hurd is stepping down following an investigation by outside legal counsel and the general counsel’s Office surrounding a claim of sexual harassment against Hurd and HP by a former contractor to HP. The investigation determined there was no violation of HP’s sexual harassment policy, but did find violations of HP’s standards of business conduct. Bloomberg's Cris Valerio, Matt Miller, Lizzie O'Leary, Adam Johnson and Dominic Chu report. (Source: Bloomberg)

Cathie Lesjak, who took over Hewlett- Packard Co. temporarily after Mark Hurd quit last week, inherited a growth slowdown and a senior staff who may be distracted by jockeying for the top job.

Lesjak addressed reporters and analysts twice in her three days as interim chief executive, seeking to play down concerns about the shakeup. Hurd resigned after a probe found inaccurate expense reports and a personal relationship with a contractor named Jodie Fisher, who is a former actress and reality TV contestant. The stock fell more than 9 percent on Aug. 6 after the announcement.

Going into what has been HP’s biggest quarter, the computer maker forecast sales of $32.5 billion to $32.7 billion. That would be up about 6 percent from a year earlier, a slower rate than the past three quarters. The CEO search makes running the operations more complicated. Several outsiders will be considered for the CEO post, along with executive vice presidents Todd Bradley, Dave Donatelli, Ann Livermore and Vyomesh Joshi, said Abhey Lamba, an analyst at ISI Group.

“If one of them gets the job, what are the chances the other three stay on? That is the question HP has to deal with,” Lamba said. The New York-based analyst recommends buying the shares, which he doesn’t own himself.

Out of the Running

Lesjak, 51, took herself out of the running for the permanent post. The company’s goal is to find the best candidate for the job, she said.

Hurd’s replacement will have to follow through on his five- year run of dominating the personal-computer market and expanding into new areas. Under his guidance, Palo Alto, California-based HP unseated Dell Inc. in PCs and undertook more than $20 billion in acquisitions, pushing deeper into computer services, networking equipment and smartphones.

Candidates from outside HP include Steve Mills, who has run the software group at International Business Machines Corp. for a decade and recently took over the hardware division, and former Oracle Corp. executive Ray Lane, who’s now a managing partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to analysts and recruiters.

Hewlett-Packard dropped 5 cents to $46.30 in regular New York Stock Exchange on Aug. 6. The shares have dropped 10 percent this year.

In May, Hurd reported quarterly sales that were about $1 billion more than analysts estimated. Revenue growth accelerated to 13 percent from the year earlier as the company shook off the recession. In the preliminary report for last quarter, which HP will release officially on Aug. 19, the company pegged sales growth at 11 percent.

Lower Forecast?

Its forecast for the current quarter suggests that management is being more conservative, possibly because of the CEO change, Lamba said.

The company investigated Hurd after receiving a letter from Fisher’s lawyer on June 29. Hurd turned the letter over to HP General Counsel Michael Holston within roughly a half-hour, according to a person familiar with the situation.

While the company determined that he didn’t harass Fisher, it found that she received numerous inappropriate payments from HP during her two years as a marketing contractor. Hurd and Fisher settled the case out of court, according to her lawyer, Gloria Allred.

The woman’s job was to organize forums for CEOs and chief information officers that gave customers access to Hurd and other HP executives. She would gather background information on invitees and introduce executives to one another.

Acting Career

Fisher didn’t have “an affair or intimate sexual relationship” with Hurd, she said in a statement released by her lawyer. Allred described Fisher as “a single mom focused on raising her young son. She has a degree in political science from Texas Tech and was recently the vice president of a commercial real estate company.”

Fisher worked on the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control, Allred said. Fisher also has appeared as an actress in such films as 1992’s “Intimate Obsession,” “Body of Influence 2” and “Sheer Passion,” according to her Internet Movie Database page, which lists her age as 50.

HP said Hurd submitted inaccurate expense reports that concealed his personal relationship with Fisher. The expenses, which range between $1,000 and $20,000, were for meals and travel, and Hurd intends to pay back the amount, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Ethical Guidelines

The investigation was led by Holston, along with outside counsel, under the supervision of the board, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

The board’s nominating and governance committee, which consists of board members Lawrence Babbio, Sari Baldauf, Lucille S. Salhany and G. Kennedy Thompson, is responsible for enforcing HP’s standards of business conduct, a set of ethical guidelines for employees that HP said Hurd violated.

In a conference call yesterday, Lesjak said Hurd’s resignation won’t affect customer relationships and that the depth of the company’s management is the best in its history. HP’s success over the past five years has been a team effort, not just Hurd’s doing, she said.

“There’s no question he did a very good job,” Lesjak said. “But he doesn’t do everything. He was one person.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Aaron Ricadela in San Francisco at aricadela@bloomberg.net; Peter Burrows in San Francisco at pburrows@bloomberg.net

Observer cette semaine : les étoles filantes des « Perséides » et rassemblement planétaire

 

Posté par Xavier Demeersman le 8/08/10 •

Perséides

Avis à tous les observateurs du ciel à l’oeil nu : maximum de l’essaim météoritiques  »les Perséides » durant les nuits du 12 et 13 août et superbe rassemblement planétaire au crépuscule où Vénus, Saturne, Mars et un fin croissant lunaire sont invités.

Les 6, 7 et 8 août, nombre d’entre nous ont plongés leur regard dans la nuit incommensurable à la rencontre des étoiles, des mondes lointains, de l’Univers et aussi d’astronomes amateurs passionnés … Un événement annuel à l’initiative de l’AFA, qui depuis 20 ans orchestre les « nuits des étoiles » partout en France. Depuis ses débuts, la manifestation se déroule à des dates proches du maximum d’activité de l’essaim météoritique « les Perséides », la très célèbre « pluie » d’étoiles filantes estivales ! C’est, ainsi, des milliers de personnes qui se réunissent, le temps d’une soirée à la belle étoile … Tout cela est promesse de charme, de poésie, de connaissances, de culture et de rencontres …

Il y a une dizaine d’années encore, la « nuit des étoiles » avait droit à une ou deux heures de télévision, notamment sur France 2, or désormais, pour je ne sais quelle raison, l’organisation en a été abandonnée. On ne peut que regretter ce recul de la diffusion et du partage des connaissances !

Les Perséides

On a tous entendu parler des étoiles filantes que l’on peut voir l’été, de ces belles pluies scintillantes illuminant les douces soirées des vacances … Beaucoup oublient que ce n’est pas la seule occasion d’en surprendre dans le ciel nocturne. Tous les mois de l’année comptent leurs essaims météoritiques, certains sont plus denses et intenses que d’autres, comme « les Perséides » (août) et « les Léonides » (novembre). Leur nom provient de la position de leur radient : la région du ciel d’où semble provenir toutes ces « flêches » lumineuses. Ainsi, celles que l’on peut observer par dizaines autour du 12 août chaque année, semblent pour la plupart jaillir de la constellation de Persée …

Les étoiles filantes ont un nom trompeur. En réalité, elles désignent les météorites qui pénètrent dans notre atmosphère par vague de plusieurs dizaines, voire centaines ! Ces poussières ou minuscules fragments rocheux sont laissés dans le sillage des comètes, en l’occurrence la comète 109 P/ Swift-Tuttle pour « les Perséides », et dérivent dans l’espace interplanétaire. Fréquemment et régulièrement, ces nuées de particules cométaires croisent l’orbite terrestre et se laissent alors entrainer vers l’atmosphère de notre planète. En la traversant, ces poussières de comètes sont littéralement désintégrées et nous ne percevons plus que leurs traces lumineuses, parfois intenses, longtemps confondues avec la fuite de certaines étoiles … !

Quelle prévision d’activité pour le cru 2010 ?

L’essaim météoritique « les Perséides » a une activité qui démarre, chaque année, autour du 17 juillet et atteint son maximum le 12 et/ou 13 août. Les toutes dernières prévisions placent le « pic d’activité » le 13 août à 5 h 20 du matin avec, peut-être, un précédent quelques heures avant, à 1 h 40. Cela demeure très difficiles de prévoir avec une grande exactitude le maximum de chaque essaim météoritique. Reste que même si vous n’êtes plus éveillé lors du maximum, les heures qui le précédent ou le suivent peuvent offrir de belles surprises où, pas mois de 100 étoiles filantes par heure peuvent être débusquées … ! En outre, le ciel restera dépourvu tout au long de la nuit, de toute clarté de la Lune offrant ainsi d’excellentes conditions pour observer le ciel, pourvu, bien sûr, que la météo soit de la partie !

Vénus, Mars et Saturne au-dessus de l'horizon ouest au crépuscule

Rassemblement planétaire

Ces jours-ci, il n’y a pas que les étoiles filantes qui font parler d’elles et qui sont capables de nous émerveiller … Tous les soirs, au crépuscule, Vénus s’acoquine avec Mars (planètes très différentes mais partenaires de longues dates dans la mythologie !) sous le regard bienveillant de Saturne, quoique …  et nous gratifient d’un splendide rapprochement visuel ! Les trois planètes se donnent en spectacle en ce début du mois d’août, accomplissant un ballet qui renouvelle chaque soirée leurs dispositions, notament la belle Vénus. Le 13 août prochain, après une longue nuit blanche passée à traquer les « perséides », nous pourrons admirer un jeune croissant lunaire accompagnant le trio planétaire. A vos appareils photos ! La « conjonction géocentrique » promet d’être superbe.

Illustrations et animations des deux phénomènes sur le site Shadow and Substance.

Pour en savoir plus sur « les Perséides » et obtenir d’avantage de prévisions : PGJ Astronomie.

Huge ice sheet breaks from Greenland glacier

 

Thousands of icebergs calve from Greenland's glaciers every year

A giant sheet of ice measuring 260 sq km (100 sq miles) has broken off a glacier in Greenland, according to researchers at a US university.

The block of ice separated from the Petermann Glacier, on the north-west coast of Greenland.

It is the largest Arctic iceberg to calve since 1962, said Prof Andreas Muenchow of the University of Delaware.

The ice could become frozen in place over winter or escape into the waters between Greenland and Canada.

If the iceberg moves south, it could interfere with shipping, Prof Muenchow said.

Cracks in the Petermann Glacier had been observed last year and it was expected that an iceberg would calve from it soon.

The glacier is 1,000 km (620 miles) south of the North Pole.

A researcher at the Canadian Ice Service detected the calving from Nasa satellite images taken early on Thursday, the professor said.

The images showed that Petermann Glacier lost about one-quarter of its 70km-long (43-mile) floating ice shelf.

There was enough fresh water locked up in the ice island to "keep all US public tap water flowing for 120 days," said Prof Muenchow.

He said it was not clear if the event was due to global warming.

Patrick Lockerby, a UK engineer with a background in material science, told the BBC he had predicted the calve on 22 July, posting images on the science2.0 website.

"I was watching the floating ice tongue wedged between two walls of a fjord for three quarters if its length with the last part at the outlet end wedged by sea ice. I thought once the sea ice was gone, the pressure would be too great and the tongue would calve."

He said there could be a beneficial outcome if the calving drifts to block the Nares Strait and effectively prevents the loss of more ice from the Lincoln Sea.

The first six months of 2010 have been the hottest on record globally, scientists have said.

From :BBC news . ;)