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October 03, 2004
"i believe in ip" manifesto
Thanks to Russ Krajec over at Anything Under the Sun Made by Man IP blog for the link to a pointed defense of intellectual property (and specifically patents) by Jonathan Schwartz of Sun Microsystems.
A little snippet from Jonathan's post:
Now, a few weeks ago, the CEO of one of the more popular open source companies called and asked me to support their stance on the invalidation of software patents. I listened closely, I respect the guy and his company. But this was the same CEO who forbade Sun from shipping his open source technology with Solaris based on a curious interpretation of the GNU Public License. And based on rabid enforcement of copyright. He was looking for broadscale support for invalidation of software patents - not spurious patents, not the kind that are acquired for litigation, but the whole concept of software patents.
And so I asked - "I'm not sure why you're asking my support to invalidate what Sun's stockholders have invested tens of billions of dollars to create, when you'd cringe if I told you to give away your largest asset, your copyright and brand." His answer, "You just don't understand." He was right, I didn't and don't. And we're going to agree to disagree. He and I, and I with a vocal minority of folks on the 'net who feel software should have no patent protection (leaving copyright and trademark untouched). I do not support that view, any more than I believe any other field of endeavor should be subjected to such a double standard. From drug discovery to academic work, the protection of IP is part and parcel of what incents inventors to and investors to invest.
Inventors, invent. Investors, invest. And intellectual property rights (trademark, copyright and patent) bridge the divide between the two. Succinct and quite an effective rebuttal.
Posted by Douglas Sorocco at 03:11 PM.
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