From Robert.Bielik@gyrosmicro.com  Tue May  8 08:04:58 2001
From: Robert.Bielik@gyrosmicro.com (Robert Bielik)
Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 09:04:58 +0200
Subject: [Patents] consultation questions
Message-ID: <12195A9A70F4D940BD8F8E5EF6F8352A27103E@seuppms01.ad-gyrosmicro.com>

Greg wrote:
>A poorly researched study.  Here is one absolute guarantee that a
>patent application guarantees you, at least here in the United States.
>It guarantees that you business plan won't be immediately rejected
>by a venture capitalist.

Now see, that is the point isn't it ? Software development is so cheap, that
venture capitalists most often are not needed. It costs the computers the
programmers sit at and selling the software products produced pays their
bills.

And in the case venture capitalists are needed, funding is in a range where
patent protection is irrelevant. I.e. well below the 10-100 million$ range
which would be needed in say a biotech startup company.

And if you say that venture capitalists back off from a project due to risk
for a company to get sued for patent infringement, then the patents have
become a means to an end. Because if one has patents, the other ones must
have them to. And that is not why patents are for in the first place, is it
? Promote progress, remember ?

So this one of your pro-sw-patent arguments is completely and utterly
irrelevant.

/Robert


