Some Schools Welcoming Patent Firm, Others Wary

theodp writes "Intellectual Ventures (IV) will be setting up shop at the top of a Four Seasons this week as Headline Sponsor of the Ready to Commercialize 2008 conference hosted by the University of Texas at Austin. It's the patent firm's 100th university deal, though some, such as Professor Michael Heller at Columbia University, warn against such deals. '... their individual profit comes at the cost of the public ability to innovate. The university's larger mission is to serve the public interest, and some of these deals work against that public interest.' It's a follow-up to the conference IV sponsored last summer for technology transfer professionals entrusted with commercializing their universities' intellectual property, and should help IV, a friend of Microsoft, snag even more exclusive deals (PDF)."

Don't fight the law, ignore it.

[wild_quinine]

With laws as outrageously stupid as some of the current patent laws, it's frankly time to start ignoring them.

Patent pooling among universities

[troll8901]

I know this is a really silly idea, but I can't seem to stop dreaming.

Universities can:

1. Form patent pools
2. Hire a good patent attorney
3. Fight patent trolls
4. Form a joint patent-holding foundation

Darn, I've gonna stop inhaling hallucinogens, and start following the money instead!

Re:Symptoms of a bigger problem

[ScrewMaster]

Again, patents were created as a bridge between creators and the market to promote progress. They have mutated into trolls that prevent progress. Patents are now a monster that must be slain.

I agree with most of your statement, but eliminating patents entirely may not be the solution. Patents (if properly implemented) can have a beneficial effect on progress ... the problem is not that patents are in inherently evil but that (as you say) they've been turned into something that no longer works for the public good. What's worse is that the only organization that can repair the damage caused by a malfunctioning USPTO and lawyer farms like IV is Congress ... and they're the ones that got us into this. Congress, and some really bad court decisions over the years.

I don't have much hope that anything will improve, near-term. It's going to have to get much, much worse, and the fact that we have a crisis-oriented government now, which likes to let matters go all to Hell before jumping in with a "solution" is another problem.

Re:Don't fight the law, ignore it.

[shentino]

Deliberately packing up and absconding can be considered fraud.

Re:Patent pooling among universities

[betterunixthanunix]

Unfortunately, patent trolling is in the best interests of most universities in the United States. Since the 1980s, everything in America has become increasing profit-centric, including education, and there is no sign of that slowing down any time soon. Just look at how most people view college these days: a ticket to a job. Gone are the days when going to college was about studying, learning, and becoming an intellectual. The schools themselves have adopted a new attitude as well, based on making money on patents and copyrights. The copyrights to my senior design project are held by my university, and for a while, they even had a legal fight with a local company that sponsored the project in order to retain those copyrights.

It will not be long before colleges start partitioning their students' access to journals based on those students' majors.

Uggh.

[CSMatt]

Anyone else see the abbreviation "IV" in the summary and immediately think "four"?