Sign up and get the BEST of PandaWhale! Sign Up Login

Entrepreneurs Tell The White House To Focus On Innovation, Not IP Enforcement

What do these entrepreneurs all have in common? They own, operate, or invest in server-side Internet services. Such innovative products do not need IP enforcement because their core IP assets are protected by the client/server barrier, or they depend on network effects to protect first-mover advantage.

Innovations which must be shipped in whole to the client--like new music, new movies, new games, packaged software, client device software, pharmaceuticals--are not so blessed.

For example: most video game companies ship their entire IP directly to the customer. What keeps from making a copy of Skyrim and selling it on my website for half the price of the original? The legal enforcement of IP protections.

I think it is really easy to fall into a bubble where "innovation" comes to mean "the latest hosted social web service". There's a lot more to innovation than that. Which was more innovative--The Dark Knight, or Triggit? I would say TDK, which was a major cultural event in the U.S. Or how about Gardasil vs. I Can Haz Cheezeburger? One will prevent thousands of cases of uterine cancer, the other hosts user-generated cat pictures.

6:28 PM Aug 10 2012

You May Also Like:

STASHES