12.13.17
Gemini version available ♊︎IBM’s Manny Schecter is Wrong Again and He is Attempting to Justify Patent Trolling
Published last week: Famed Journalist Dan Gillmor Calls IBM the Inventor of Patent Trolling
Summary: In yet another dodgy effort to undermine the US Supreme Court and bring back software patents, IBM’s “chief patent counsel” (his current job title) expresses views that are bunk or “alternative facts”
TECHRIGHTS used to be very supportive of IBM. In fact, IBM used to be helpful to Free software, open standards, and GNU/Linux (especially at the back end and high-performance computing). But that was IBM a decade ago, managed by other people and adhering to different principles/strategies.
Do not be misled by what IBM used to be.
“In several areas/domains of technology IBM does nothing but patent predation.”IBM is attempting to attack/discredit Alice. It’s doing it like no other company does. IBM’s Manny Schecter, who is in charge of patents, says Alice is bad “because if the company fails, the investor must leverage its patent assets to return the investment.”
“Because if the company fails, it has to be turned into a troll” is how the FFII’s President translated/interpreted that. Yes, a troll. Like IBM right now… even some veteran technology journalists now call IBM a “troll”. In several areas/domains of technology IBM does nothing but patent predation.
Manny Schecter is an exceptionally harmful public face. It’s no good for IBM. Even if his tweets and talks he is attempting to distance from his employer, his expression of his own views is a projection of IBM policies. He’s not a low-level engineer; he’s management. Top-level management.
“How low is IBM willing to sink in an effort to shore up software patents?”IBM rapidly became a liar of a company. It’s so eager to blackmail new/small companies and its Patent Chief (or whatever they call him these days, putting aside fancy job titles) just makes them look vile. We used to support IBM, but now we just hope that IBM goes bust soon. The sooner, the better. Its activities on the patent front are ruinous and they concern a growing number of developers.
Regarding IBM’s (or Schecter’s) position, well… first of all, for a massive company to pretend to care for and speak for small companies is laughable or at least dubious. IBM attacks several such companies. Secondly, Alice made many such companies safer from trolls, hence a safer investment. Thankfully, WIPR decided to assess Schecter’s claims. Unfortunately, the article is quoting/citing extremists.
Here are portions from that article:
The number of venture capital (VC) investment rounds in technology companies has nearly halved, according to merchant bank Magister Advisors, sparking debate about the causes behind the decline.
Some commentators have discussed whether Alice v CLS Bank has played any role in this.
Citing data and research firm PitchBook, Magister Advisors noted that since 2014, the number of VC rounds in technology companies worldwide has fallen from 19,000 to 10,000.
For Manny Schecter, chief patent counsel at IBM, this decrease may correlate with the US Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Alice. The decision led to an increase the number of patents being invalidated under section 101.
In early December this year, WIPR noticed a tweet from Schecter, who linked to a TechCrunch article written by Magister Advisors’ Victor Basta, and decided to investigate.
[...]
Chris Behrenbruch, CEO of radiopharmaceutical company Telix Pharmaceuticals, who replied to Schecter’s tweet, offered a different view.
“I don’t think it’s nefarious—it’s just fund-raising cycles. A lot of VC was raised back in 2006-2008 and then the impact of the financial crisis significantly reduced capital raised during 2009-13,” he said.
It’s rather sad that a company which prides itself on science cannot get something so fundamental right. In fact, even on the surface alone these claims that it’s Alice which harmed investment smell funny.
How low is IBM willing to sink in an effort to shore up software patents? █
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