cat slave diary

Patently evil

Written by

Andrew van der Stock

in

Mark Curphey, a really smart guy I respect for his work founding OWASP and creating the first edition of the Guide, lost a goodly percentage of my respect today:

I did some patent review work in Dallas recently. I traded my security consulting time to a company who in return provided their legal firms time for my patents. I have been living and breathing patent strategies for the last few weeks.

One of our advisors sent me back comments to a provisional “elevator pitch” I put together. As always brilliant feedback and very valuable suggestions. Surround yourself with brilliant people and its hard to fail!

As a customer of many companies, the thing I worry about the least is whether they’ve spent effort on things which add no value to me. I worry extensively about small companies that invest valuable time and money on worthless pursuits, such as patents or marketing when there’s no products to be had. Of course, this list is missing the vast majority of the real wasters.

There is no point in investing in or buying into any company who burns valuable startup resources on worthless evil patents. Focus on beating your competition by simply being better than them or offering a unique service… and then do it again a little later so your competition still has to catch you. The world does not owe you a 17 year license to sit on your arse, milk consumers and stifle competition.

Patents are evil on so many fronts, it’s hard to list them all. Here’s some that come to mind:

  • Money is wasted on patent lawyers. Patent lawyers are a pestilence on society. Sorry, Jeff, but I’m so glad you got out of that game
  • Patents add no value to the economy of ideas or the general economy. They produce no value to a nation’s GDP, but hold back competition and a natural market’s growth
  • Patents are an anticompetitive weapon to squish competition who came up with fundamentally the same idea as you but foolishly or bravely chose not to patent the patently obvious
  • Patents are not assets until they earn income by squishing the competition or milking other companies for licensing fees, milking the consumer or pure extortion cos they have no choice but to buy from a limited, stifled market. Patent battles are only useful after point (1) has wasted a six figure to seven figure sum for your average fight on worthless patent lawyers and mucky court battles.
  • Sooner or later, all the patentable ideas will have been patented (many patents already significantly overlap), and it’s just who has the most serious patent lawyers and deepest pockets who can dictate who can innovate or provide services.

This is wrong. Imagine how many schools and hospitals could be built in third world countries for the value of the patent battles and licensing fees in the Valley alone. Patents are an insufferable evilness and must not be allowed to pass.

Mark, there’s no point in trying to ensure you don’t fail, you’ve already failed for being the latest sucker to take the poisoned patent chalice. You founded OWASP on the basis of openness and inclusion in an industry notorious for its secretive and proprietary ways. Reconsider before joining the dark side.

Comments

3 responses to “Patently evil”

  1. Rod Divilbiss Avatar
    Rod Divilbiss

    There are no doubt many flaws with the current Patent laws in the US. But we are wrong to confuse those flaws, and abuses that come from those flaws.

    Patents provide necessary protection for innovators, inventors and researchers to help prevent the theft of their hard work. Patent law is therefore a natural consequence of civilization an a necessity to a strong society.

    The fact that many seemingly obvious solutions to common problems have been allowed to receive Patents which then are used in “evil” ways by businesses to extort money is indeed a serious problem, but that does not mean Patents are a flawed idea, but rather the current state of Patent law is flawed.

    One need look no further than Eli Whitney to see the value of invention and innovation. The cotton gin transformed southern agriculture and the national economy. American cotton found ready markets in Europe and in the burgeoning textile mills of New England. A tremendous boon for the economy and a technological invention that contributed to the end of slavery. Hardly evil.

  2. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    I agree and disagree about what you have said.

    Leaving IT Security and moving back into the creative field has seen me understand the legal options avilable for me to project my work. The images I create are mine and in todays Internet, it’s ok for people to steal those images as well, its the Internet and thats what everyone else does, right?

    Wrong, you are stealing my creative vision, my hard work and any potential income that can be made from that vision. Granted some aspects of the patent process can be avoided, but there is still a massive need for them.

    OWASP is a great idea, hell I’ve been involved with it from the start when Mark initially sent out that email, but how many people use OWASP content and not tell us? How many people are still abusing the brand?

    Some area’s where patents are evil:
    Cancer/Aids prevention, cure and general medicine
    Idea’s that benefit society

    Some area’s where patents are required:
    Technology, when you have spent X amount on developing a product and don’t want it stolen by some competitor

    As for schools and 3rd world countries, having grown up in a “3rd” world African country and documented how 1st world countries rape their natural resources, patents didn’t do that, capitalism did!

  3. Ian Holsman Avatar
    Ian Holsman

    People like you should have a look at the fate of Boston Communications (http://www.bcgi.net/ ) and what happens when people don’t think about patents.

    http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05257/571396.stm details the issue, but in summary.

    $55m paid, plus 5% of market cap. and that doesn’t take into account lawyer fees, and the 6 years it took to go through the courts.

    Patents might be evil, you may not like them, and you think they are a blight.

    but you can’t/shouldn’t ignore them. as others can use them against you.

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