Intellectual Property Law

Software Patent Research in Boulder

By Wendy Seltzer

I’ve moved to Boulder, Colorado, for a year with the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado. I’m here to research software patents and user innovation (and no, innovative methods of trolling aren’t quite what I think the Founders meant by “promote the progress of science and the useful arts.”)

Boulder’s a particularly good place for this study, because along with its beautiful mountains and open spaces, it has an intense entrepreneurial community, with frequent New Tech Meetups, Ignites, and informal gatherings. Plenty of innovation, how much fueled or swamped by patent?

I’m particularly interested in the cases of strategic behavior, where a patent is used not to secure limited-time exclusivity for the developer bringing a product to market, but instead as a bargaining lever, to spread FUD, or to extract value by threat. Are these indirectly promoting progress, such as by providing a market for research investment, or do they just get in the way? If you’re in the area and thinking about these issues, please let me know!

Full post as published by Legal Tags on September 16, 2009 (boomark / email).