What Does It Say When The World's Largest Patent Holder Sees Problems With The System?

from the seems-telling dept

Tue, Sep 26th 2006 9:00am — Joseph Weisenthal

The world's most prolific patent filer, IBM, is taking steps to address what it sees as significant flaws in the patent system. Under a new policy, the company will be more open about what patents it holds, post filed patents to the web before they're accepted by the patent office, and stand opposed to broad, business-model patents that don't represent any technical innovation. CEO Sam Palmisano nicely lays out the business case for patent reform, "The larger picture here is that intellectual property is the crucial capital in a global knowledge economy. If you need a dozen lawyers involved every time you want to do something, it's going to be a huge barrier. We need to make sure that intellectual property is not used as a barrier to growth in the future." The company acknowledges that by posting its patent applications to the web, years in advance of when the patent is accepted, it's tipping off its competitors as to what technologies the company is working on. But ceding this competitive advantage is a small price to pay, if the overall technology market grows because of it. In fact, having competitors develop competing and complementary technologies to IBM's is critical to developing a thriving ecosystem. In this light, it shouldn't be surprising that a company with a history of innovation, like IBM, lead the way on patent reform. The current system is fraught with risks, including the possibility that less innovative firms will use the patent weapon to extract money from it, rather than actually bringing innovative products to market. Of course, it doesn't seem like IBM will slow down their own patent applications any time soon. There's still a defensive case for filing patents as inoculation against future lawsuits. But it's good to see such an influential company moving in this direction. Hopefully more of its peers will follow suit.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

23 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Matt Bennett, 26 Sep 2006 @ 9:40am

Go IBM. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Greg, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:01am

Man, I love IBM. It's refreshing to see a company do something like this.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PhysicsGuy, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:04am

i completely agree with the previous posters

so why even post?

well, why not?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lam Ang, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:31am

Another Chinese propaganda, business approach the Asian way!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BillDivX, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:33am

????
I'm pretty much downright speechless...A technology company, making sense? doing the right thing? promoting laws and goverment agencies geared towards competition and innovation??? Excuse me, I have to run home and see if my potbellies are flying around the room.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:41am

Well, I have to say that this enlightens the basic freedom of the ability to change an antiquated system without the need for governmental changes to the constitution.

It makes me very happy to see a company, without the basis for reforming their models, make the right choices to create a new industry worthwhile, without hurting themselves.

Way to go, IBM! You really have proven that without a large need for expectations, there will always be the ability to do the right thing in association with the communties knowledge and appreciation of the special intentions.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sanguine Dream, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:43am

Good idea...
This move would force IBM to make sure their patenting the good stuff. Or they will have to dedicate a several new servers to hosting patent applications.

But my real fear is that this move won't motivate others to follow suit. IBM is taking a big leap of faith in this profit driven world.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sarah, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:46am

IBM and their kind= more muscle to clean out compe
So does that mean if patents are exposed than the company who brings the innovative product to market first wins? Isn't usually the case that the bigger companies with muscle will have the advantage regardless if they though of the innovated process?

Good luck start-up companies. May the force be with you ;o
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:48am

Thank you IBM
This is refreshing new given the findings of the WEF and the U.S.' tumble with regards to Global Economic Competitiveness (what? debt is bad? who knew?): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5381428.stm

While the U.S. is still #1 in technological innovation, we are at risk of losing that edge as well. This really opens doors for people to open their minds.

Thank you IBM for providing a ray of hope through the clouds of madness ...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
HotGarbage, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:50am

Kick Ass
Go Big Blue, Go Big Blue!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
MCeeP, 26 Sep 2006 @ 11:12am

big blue's big warm fuzzies
For once, this is something really cool to come from a big company. Just gotta add to the warm fuzzy feelings :) Good on ya, Big Blue.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Savio Rodrigues, 26 Sep 2006 @ 11:30am

Great 1st step - now for the encore
As an IBMer at heart, this is awesome. Especially the part about excluding 'business methods' without technical specifics.

Now, I'd love to see IBM pledge that they won't enforce any current IBM patent that would have fallen into this bucket during the past, say 5 years.

That would be real leadership (not that today's announcement isn't!).

Savio
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Eric, 26 Sep 2006 @ 11:55am

Now what if...
What if IBM opened up their servers for others to post their patent filings.....

Would that database end up being a 'claim' of prior art repository?

The step after that is to automate the patent office out of existence....

A little lobbying here and there, and who knows....
and he who posts first wins....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Laser, 26 Sep 2006 @ 12:11pm

Not only this
Aside their new patents strategy, IBM is promoting a new model for industry-university collaborations. Have a look at this:

Open Collaboration Principles

Believe me, i am not payed by IBM ;-)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mousky, 26 Sep 2006 @ 12:21pm

Re: Good idea...
This move would force IBM to make sure their patenting the good stuff.

Nothing wrong with that. Since a patent is a government-granted monopoly, patents should be good ideas, not broadly written ideas. Patents should be of a high quality. They should add real value to society not just the patent holder. They should not prevent competition.

IBM is taking a big leap of faith in this profit driven world.

True, but they are also looking at reducing their costs relating to patent litigation. Keep in mind that if a patent is of a high-quality it will likely have a high value. The current patent system does not reward truly unique ideas. It rewards those who sit on broadly worded patents.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
u no, 26 Sep 2006 @ 12:38pm

too bad
Too bad I did not know all of this eight months ago. I might have baught an IBM for college instead of a Dell. Oh well. There is always next time.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
jinx, 26 Sep 2006 @ 1:44pm

Re: too bad
Seeing as IBM doesn't make consumer computers anymore, and hasn't for awhile, I find this highly unlikely.
CRLF
I would like to add my kudos as well. Cheers Big Blue, aka Khaki and Black
[ link to this | view in thread ]
gimpydwarf, 26 Sep 2006 @ 2:22pm

You all buy the BS?
IBM has made billions of dollars because of the open architechture or the IBM PC. Being open with it's developing projects only makes sense. The more people that develope products that utilize IBM's products, the more money that IBM makes.

Although patent law is in dire need of revamping, don't mistake IBM's motives. It's not about making the world a better place, it's about revenue.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike Mixer, 26 Sep 2006 @ 2:25pm

Much ado about little
It is helpful that IBM is doing this but you have to wonder how much it will act as an object lesson. Most patent trolls will want to keep their booty top secret so they can pick a juicier fish to go after if a lot of people stumble on to the "patently" obvious and infringe on it
[ link to this | view in thread ]
|33173|3|_||3, 26 Sep 2006 @ 6:57pm

Re: You all buy the BS?
I agree about the motive, but i think thier press release has a point (as does alll of techdirt). IBM would not be where it is today without its openness and using standard architecture (look at what happened when they tried using closed standards on thier desktops, i.e. no-one bought them, they just used updated clones of older IBMs, which IBM then returned to). HTis is sound business sense, and If M$ started to do this more, they could probably retrive some of the ground lost to Linux in the Server market.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
A chicken passeth by, 26 Sep 2006 @ 10:22pm

If they never got bitten by the SCO, I doubt they'd even look into this. I suppose we should thank SCO... *choke* *gag*.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
48159, 27 Sep 2006 @ 6:53am

Intellectual property is not capital in any form.
You can turn it into capital if you put into practice draconian laws that turn any idea into a monopoly.
Innovation and practical applications of an idea represent the real capital.
An idea if not put into practice or harnessed and spread is worthless.
And innovation allows to be ahead of competition, IP laws as such see innovation as something stagnant or that goes ahead in jumps and bumps, this truly false. Innovation is a continuous process built on all of the amassed knowledge.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
angry dude, 27 Sep 2006 @ 9:34am

Another piece of BS from IBM
Mudaki !

Patent applications (most of them) are already publushed at 18 month (years ahead of the actual grant)
JUst go to www.uspto.gov/patft to see for yourself.

Techdirt is dumb as usual
[ link to this | view in thread ]