Patents: for inventions, or merely ideas?
The San Francisco Chronicle published on Sunday a fascinating interview with Google's patent counsel, Tim Porter, who argues that the system itself is broken and that Microsoft -- sometime partner, sometime bitter rival -- pursues patent litigation when its own products "stop succeeding in the marketplace."
"The concern is that the more people get distracted with litigation, the less they'll be inventing," Porter said to columnist James Temple.
Five things I learned from the Q&A:
As a side note, Ars Technica's Tim Lee goes deeper into the issue, examining the levers that could (or couldn't) make litigation less appealing. His conclusion? Google is part of the problem, because it's spending too much time buying into the system instead of reforming it.
What say you, developers?
Google lawyer: Why the patent system is broken [SF Chronicle]