Standards, IP, and Innovation ...
chapq,
<< More exhaustive treatises than this one are clear that the creation of patentable stuff is very much in the public interest. Making a s**tload of money occasionally drives men to create terrific things for society. >>
The attempt to make a "s**tload of money" in the market also seems to affect ones judgment on this matter [and I'm not opposed to doing that, witness some equities I hold].
I'm sure you can find treatises that support that thesis, but as matter of fact, the body of literature on the subject generated in the last 15 years is NOT CLEAR on that, and is becoming increasingly cloudy. Until the end of the last decade most economists were in general agreement that the net effect of patent systems was positive. In the main, the best and most exhaustive more recent treatises, dissertations, case studies, and books on the subject of standards and IPR examine the utilities of IPR on standards from many perspectives and evaluate both the mechanics and the uses and abuses of IPR and the pros and cons of the impact of IP on innovation in great detail.
Rudi Bekkers who has written extensively on the standardization of 2nd and 3rd generation mobile wireless telephony recently commented on that here:
tinyurl.com
This is a statement made earlier this year by the SVP for Technology and Intellectual Property of a company that holds one of the largest and most valuable patent portfolios in the world when they donated 500 patents to the open source community:
"True innovation leadership is about more than just the numbers of patents granted. It's about innovating to benefit customers, partners and society Continuing IBM's legacy of leadership in the strategic use of intellectual property, our pledge today is the beginning of a new era in how IBM will manage intellectual property to benefit our partners and clients. Unlike the preceding industrial economy, the innovation economy requires that intellectual property be deployed for more than just providing the owner with freedom of action and income generation." - John Kelly, IBM SVP for Technology and Intellectual Property, 1/15/2005 -
vnunet.com
I should add that while I didn't realize it when I 1st linked it, the Goodman and Myers study may well be the "Nokia-backed research" on the subject that was alluded to in press reports about Informa Telecoms and Media's (3G Mobile/Mobile Handset Analyst) research report, since I had assumed a UK based consultancy specializing in IP might have been utilized by Nokia. The timing would be about right since the study was presented mid-March at IEEE Infocomm 2005 and Slacker pointed out to me elsewhere that Fairfield Resources International which employs former IBMer Dr. Robert Myers, the studies co-author, lists Nokia as a client, and their principle offices in Stamford are very close to Nokia's new US headquarters in Westchester where Nokia's CFO and head of their Enterprise Solutions Group which works closely with IBM (also just up the road) are stationed:
frlicense.com
frlicense.com
<< This one is crap. >>
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but absolutely nothing you have yet stated on this board, on that subject, remotely backs that up in my estimation. To the contrary and in my estimation what you call "crap" includes some rather valuable and up to date high-level information for those that follow 3rd Generation wireless -- regardless of whether or not you (or I) subscribe the study's thesis.
<< If it were all up to self-serving immense entrenched institutions and corporations to gather IPR to trade or distribute among members of standards organizations as they see fit, the public interest would be served badly. >>
Once again, you are perfectly entitled to that opinion -- but let us make perfectly clear that your opinion is not universally shared.
The Goodman and Myers slide set and text document I formerly listed separately are listed together here:
dawn.cs.umbc.edu
3gworldguide.com
This article written by Makoto Kijima and Tsuyoshi Takeda for the NTT DoCoMo Technical Journal in June 2003 presents DoCoMo's view on the subject and their rationale supporting the 3G Patent Platform which Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and QUALCOMM elected not to join after several participated in some early organizational efforts that led to its creation:
tinyurl.com
I mentioned Rudi Bekkers above. One of the staples in my library is this book by Bekkers which although not it main focus, discusses IP as a backdrop to the overall open standards generation process for access technologies:
tinyurl.com
Best,
- Eric - |
