OIN interviews, announcement of "Linux Defenders" and general criticism of this patent strategy

In TLWIR 53, I will present some ideas on how to fix the broken U.S. patent system.

Europe's policy-making process is serving the hands of multinationals or monopolies with vested interests in lock-in and reduced competition; new patent lawsuits against Apple

Privacy International (PI) wants to eliminate a Google product, but PI was said to have vested/conflicting interests

In 2004, Brandeis economist Adam Jaffe and Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner published Innovation and its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What to Do About It - a rare book on patents and written for generalists, not patent lawyers. "Broken" is strong language, but it gets attention.

Novell gets some new intellectual monopolies and Microsoft gets sued over patent infringement

A patent is a powerful thing: it's a legal monopoly on an invention for up to 20 years. In the past, patents were almost universally regarded as essential to the economy. By rewarding innovation, they created an incentive for inventors to invent more. Yet more than any other time in our history, the patent system now is under fire, and enormous change has been afoot to "fix" it.

Does Microsoft's ODF "support" work best when it doesn't work (with other office suites)?

This time it's Microsoft's turn to be bashed, but next time it may be an open-source company, or your company. Many big technology companies pay up to patent pirates, and while i4i isn't one of those and Microsoft talks big now, they may well end up paying up. U.S.