[YBA] i4i vs MS?

[Danny Lieberman]

Geoff

Good point -but a tactical one.

A provisional patent  can be  a deterrent to competitors and copiers.

1. relatively cheap
2. the spec remains secret
3. delays legal and filing fees
4. relatively easy to write
5. enables the product to be marked patent pending
6. Gives a startup a head-start in market development

However -  being able to protect an idea in the interim is far from being a
sufficient condition for success.

The other factors - a really divergent idea, a new market space, a clear
strategy and perfect execution  are overwhelmingly more important.

Let me put it this way - more startups fail because of personality issues
with the founders than because some bad people stole an idea that could have
been protected by a provisional patent.

-
Danny Lieberman
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.dannylieberman.info


On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 8:50 PM, geoffrey mendelson <
geoffreymendelson at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Aug 13, 2009, at 6:03 PM, Shlomi Fish wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm all for making money out of good ideas, but I still think that people
>> need
>> to take the necessary effort in taking these ideas forward, instead of
>> just
>> issuing vague, generic and/or trivial software patents that prevent people
>> from developing similar programs. Copyrights gives enough protection for
>> software and for making money of it, while software patents tend to do
>> more
>> harm than good.
>>
>
> Why are software ideas different than any other ideas? Not only does your
> last statement make no sense, it discriminates against software developers
> and is totally unsubstanisated.
>
> While I very much support FOSS (and public domain software, which  is what
> it was called before people started to make money off of it), I support the
> right for people who invent new software to protect their rights. Copyrights
> do not protect them "enough", it still allows someone who is as smart or
> smarter than they are to take their idea and sell it.
>
> I have had many conversations with a competitors about startups that had
> interesting ideas that made them unique. The conversations always go
> something like "what makes them different is that they do xxx and we don't",
> I ask "when will you have it", and they answer something like "next week".
>
> Very soon everyone does it, and the startup disappears, taking with it the
> life savings of the seed investors. I can't speak for anyone else, but the
> people I know are relatively honest, if the startup had filled a US
> provisional patent and claimed (as their right) "patent pending technology"
> they would not.
>
> I also have had experience with people who are not as honest and do it
> anyway, but that's a different subject.
>
> It's even happened in the last few months to someone on this list, they
> announced their existance and looked for employees on this list, which
> caused a competitor who is a lurker to look at their web site and a week
> later we had the exact conversation I mentioned above. He has a big company,
> they were one or two people looking for some part time employees.
>
> Is that the effect on the "software industry" you wish to have?
>
> Geoff.
> --
> geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
> Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
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