"Eric S. Maskin has just been awarded the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, often called Nobel Prize in Economics. [...] But Eric S. Maskin may be known to readers of this blog for another reason. He is the co-author of the landmark 2000 Bessen-Maskin paper on the relationship between sequential innovation, patents and investment in R&D.

history tells me that if patents were to disappear tomorrow, the process of innovation wouldn't skip a beat.

Jobs replied, saying that “[a] patent pool is being assembled to go after Theora and other open source codecs now.” The news spread like wildfire. This episode provides a good example of how software patents harm innovation and why they are ultimately incompatible with Free Software. Any program - Free Software or not - is threatened by patents.

We’ve seen time and again that consumers are willing to pay at a price point that makes sense for them – this is Economics 101. When new business models emerge, artists and fans win. It’s only the traditional distributers and gatekeepers (we’re looking at you, MPAA and RIAA) who lose.....

Open Source and Economics are related in a sense that they require time and effort to be quantified and measured by both - producers and consumers.

Another quick overview of patent news most of which affecting Linux and Android

In the old "pre 2000" day, the objective of most technology companies when they applied for patent protection was to ensure that their products and technologies were not copied by their competitors. The idea was that thanks to the patents you enjoyed about 20 years of exclusive use of your technology, after which everyone was free to use it because by then it was considered obvious.

ACTA, patents, and tax law challenged .

"Excluding computer software from the Patents Bill is a mistake and will stifle innovation", says Chapman Tripp Partner Matt Sumpter. "I'm astonished that the Commerce Committee is recommending this change and hope that the Government will reconsider because the arguments against it are very strong", he said.