Corporate Ventures
intellectual property: do nice corporations finish last?
Corporations in America today are in an arms race to develop intellectual property. Their patent portfolios largely consist of unoriginal and vague descriptions. Often their "inventions" are not mechanisms at all, but are merely methods or business processes.
They say defense is the best offense, and companies are stockpiling these patents as a shield. If Microsoft breaks the line and sues Google for damages on infringing IP, Google can retalliate with its massive portfolio. See [1]
It is the opinion of manay that this is a huge problem that stifles innovation and further drives to the established players. See the excellent documentary at [2].
Corps also must manage PR here. Today Yahoo! breaks ranks and sues Facebook and suffers a fairly severe negative reaction from the community. [3]
How will The Social Corp play this game and what can we do to influence policy?
2 Answers
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Open Source - I don't think that patents will have the same weight as the information revolution continues... ask the music industry how much copyright means nowadays. Open Source development will outpace locked away closely held applications or products in the long run. And even as the old guards stay guarded the value of their 'innovations' will fade as demand goes down. How does The Social Corp play this game, by encouraging the growth of open sourced intellectual property built around our core values.
