[YBA] i4i vs MS?

[Danny Lieberman]

Shachar

Read Patent Failure by Besson and Meuer - software patents are a net
economic negative - ie the cost to write, issue and enforce is greater than
the economic benefit.

This is in comparison with pharma and chemical industries where patents have
a net economic positive balance - ie profit from patents outweighs cost

danny

On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 12:31 PM, Shachar Shemesh <shachar at shemesh.biz>wrote:

>  Danny Lieberman wrote:
>
>
> the judge wants to forbid MSFT from selling Word in the US on grounds  of a
> patent-infringement that cannot be proved to protect a company that relies
> on Word to sell it's product.
>
> I think the injunction is really ludicrous. The rule of late was that
> preventing a software house from selling its software because of a yet
> unproved claim does not satisfy the balance of damages. For example, it is
> quite clear that i4i cannot afford to compensate Microsoft for its true
> damages if should MS comply with this injunction, but then prevail in the
> actual case. The damages to Microsoft would be in the billions, and I doubt
> i4i has that much. On the other hand, if the injunction were not given, and
> i4i prevails, it is hard to imagine a situation in which MS will not have
> the money to compensate it.
>
> The whole setup seems utterly ridiculous.
>
> And yet, we cannot seem to draft Microsoft to the anti-software patents
> camp. Despite the fact that their loses to silly patents over the years far
> outweight their gains from them.
>
> Amazing
>
> Shachar
>
> --
> Shachar Shemesh
> Lingnu Open Source Consulting Ltd.http://www.lingnu.com
>
>


-- 
Danny Lieberman
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