If you're so old-fashioned as to think that TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, you might be a bit irked by the title of this column. But, hey, that just shows you aren't paying attention to what's going on. In the technology world these days, IP stands for Intellectual Property, and the first and foremost protocol on the Internet is to take out a patent on everything you do.
We've talked about dumb patents before, but the examples just keep coming. For instance, last week a small company called ConnecTel announced it is suing Cisco over alleged patent infringement of its intelligent routing technology. ConnecTel never actually released a product implementing its technology, which was originally developed to help deliver "faith-based inspirational faxes." After filing for the patent in 1996, the company says it subsequently offered a license to Cisco. Allegedly, Cisco declined the license but then incorporated the technology in many of its routers. Which is pretty remarkable when you consider the fact that Cisco already knew a thing or two about routers by 1996.
At least routers represent a form of technology that we can agree might be patentable. Last week it was also learned that Cendant is suing Amazon over an Internet "business method" patent. It seems that Cendant has been granted a patent on the idea of recommending particular goods and services to customers based on database records of their previous purchases. It filed for the patent in 1997, just days before Amazon started recommending books to on-line customers. If you think about it, though, Amazon wasn't the first to infringe Cendant's patent -- merchants of all sorts have been doing so for thousands of years.
Along with the business method patents, the other big class of dumb patents is those in the software arena. Last month saw one of the most disturbing cases yet when Sun was forced to settle after a ruling that Java violates a Kodak software patent. Many observers have noted that Kodak's patent, which relates to how modules of a program interoperate, is so broad that it could apply to just about any semi-complex program. And, as is inevitably the case with software patents, the company that patented the technique was hardly the first to "invent" it.
Since Cisco, Amazon and Sun are big boys who have been on the other end of intellectual property disputes, I don't think we need to fret overly much about whatever transpires in these cases. Indeed, Amazon helped start the trend toward business method litigation with its lawsuit against Barnes & Nobel over its "one-click shopping" patent.
The real victims of these lawsuits are companies we've never heard of, companies that might not yet exist, and companies that might never exist. Each dumb patent granted and each extorting claim filed raises the barriers to entry for new players. When having new ideas no longer matter as much as having licenses and lawyers, we may soon see IP take on a third meaning: Innovation Prevention.
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