4 ms·

You can always go work in the US or sell your product there. Rocard - may he rest in peace- and so many others did make a difference, for the better. The soft

by markvdb 10y ago

You can always go work in the US or sell your product there. Rocard - may he rest in peace- and so many others did make a difference, for the better. The software patents battle is one of the reasons we have less patent trolls in the EU versus the US. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_troll https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_for_the_Eastern_District_of_Texas#Patent_litigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_District_Court_f... What few people seem to know is that the software patent battle was also an important in tilting the balance of power between the EU commission, the EU council and the EU parliament towards the democratically elected parliament.

timwaagh 10y ago
I'm not sure bout how easy it would be to move to the US, but it's not surprising many of our best software engineers and innovators choose that option. Not wanting to belittle the guys achievements, yet the balance between EU parliament and the commission is still way off, which is one of the only legitimate reasons people have to dislike the EU. i understand that the patent system has downsides and of course 'fewer patents' means 'fewer trolls'. however nothing significant in software (esp. outside of open source) has come out of the EU for a long time. Our innovation model needs to change.
- bkor 10y ago
  How have software patents helped any of the big growing companies over the last 10 years? Maybe explain it using the various startups which are quite a success: Whatsapp, Instagram, Wechat, Twitter. Your entire comment reads like a false dichotomy. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FalseDichotomy http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FalseDichotomy
  - timwaagh 10y ago
    For one thing those are/were based in America and china, not Europe. If anything the cases of startups with European founders moving to the USA to found their companies helps my argument. As for companies which have benefitted: microsoft gets paid for android. because of stuff they invested in a long time ago. Motorola getting bought by Google because they invented a lot of things. oracle is of course a very big company and the only thing that keeps it alive is their IP. All those big companies rely on the patent system to make investment decicions. to put someone on a project which takes a long time before it will yield results. If there are no patents, you will not have these kinds of R&D based corporations. And that is a big loss for Europe. As for whether this particular dichotomy is false, it may be so but i doubt it. history has more or less already spoken.

by markvdb 10y ago

timwaagh 10y ago

I'm not sure bout how easy it would be to move to the US, but it's not surprising many of our best software engineers and innovators choose that option. Not wanting to belittle the guys achievements, yet the balance between EU parliament and the commission is still way off, which is one of the only legitimate reasons people have to dislike the EU. i understand that the patent system has downsides and of course 'fewer patents' means 'fewer trolls'. however nothing significant in software (esp. outside of open source) has come out of the EU for a long time. Our innovation model needs to change.

bkor 10y ago
How have software patents helped any of the big growing companies over the last 10 years? Maybe explain it using the various startups which are quite a success: Whatsapp, Instagram, Wechat, Twitter. Your entire comment reads like a false dichotomy. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FalseDichotomy http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?FalseDichotomy
- timwaagh 10y ago
  For one thing those are/were based in America and china, not Europe. If anything the cases of startups with European founders moving to the USA to found their companies helps my argument. As for companies which have benefitted: microsoft gets paid for android. because of stuff they invested in a long time ago. Motorola getting bought by Google because they invented a lot of things. oracle is of course a very big company and the only thing that keeps it alive is their IP. All those big companies rely on the patent system to make investment decicions. to put someone on a project which takes a long time before it will yield results. If there are no patents, you will not have these kinds of R&D based corporations. And that is a big loss for Europe. As for whether this particular dichotomy is false, it may be so but i doubt it. history has more or less already spoken.