Intellectual Ventures And The War Over Software Patents : Planet Money : NPR

Intellectual Ventures And The War Over Software Patents (Planet Money : NPR)
►http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/07/26/138576167/when-patents-attack

Patents are a big deal in the software industry right now. Lawsuits are proliferating. Big technology companies are spending billions of dollars to buy up huge patent portfolios in order to defend themselves. Computer programmers say patents are hindering innovation.
But people at companies that have been approached by Intellectual Ventures don’t want to talk publicly. (...)

Une heure d’enquête radio sur les patent trolls — “When Patents Attack !” | This American Life
►http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack

Why would a company rent an office in a tiny town in East Texas, put a nameplate on the door, and leave it completely empty for a year? The answer involves a controversial billionaire physicist in Seattle, a 40 pound cookbook, and a war waging right now, all across the software and tech industries.
We take you inside this war, and tell the fascinating story of how an idea enshrined in the US constitution to promote progress and innovation, is now being used to do the opposite.

on y parle des #brevets, de #silicon_valley, de Nathan Myhrvold et de ses ►http://www.intellectualventures.com qui “a la capacité d’écraser n’importe quelle startup” (et aussi de son bouquin à 625$ : Modernist Cuisine ►http://www.amazon.fr/Modernist-Cuisine-Art-Science-Cooking/dp/0982761007) et de ce bâtiment de bureaux… vides… au 104 E. Houston street, suite 190, Marshall, Texas, où se concentrent les fausses entreprises (NPE = “non-practicing entities”) du patent troll Oasis, qui semble être un faux-nez de IV.