Patently-O Bits and Bytes No. 18

• Harvard’s Journal of Law & Technology is generally considered on of the top two academic journals focusing on Law & Technology (along with Berkeley’s TLJ). JOLT recently increased its online footprint with the JOLT DIGEST where they regularly cover important new cases.
• Software Patents: Although in Bilski, the CAFC is not likely to consider software patents per se, there is a strong and growing movement to eliminate all software patents. The descriptively named “End Software Patents” group is led by Ben Klemens (Author of Math You Can’t Use) and is continuing to move forward. Interestingly, Microsoft Explorer crashed when I visited their site. [See LegalPad’s article]
• Software Patents: On the more academic side, two serious patent dataheads (Iain Cockburn and Megan MacGarvie) have analyzed economic results of software patents in various industries. Their results: (1) When patents are held by those currently market, it is more difficult for a startup to get financing; and (2) When a startup holds patents, it has a greater chance of obtaining financing.  [LINK] DDC Comment: This is, of course, exactly how we would expect the market to react.
• Auctioning the Right to File a Patent Application: Ayres and Parchomovsky have an interesting, if misguided, paper on patent rights. They see a problem with too many patents and suggest a “cap.” The right to file patent applications could be auctioned and then traded or sold in a secondary market. [LINK]
• Kempton Lam has an interesting discussion on patents and other matters with Mike Dillon GC of Sun. [LINK]