IP&CC: An Annotated Biliography

In my research about intellectual property, I have mostly focused on the patent system and its problems. This is the are of intellectual property most relevant to me and I am a software engineer, finishing up my degree in computer science at Brigham Young University. My research has mostly drawn on my experience as a software engineer working at Qualtrics, where my manager Jared Smith (formerly head of product over Google Asia) inspired me with the idea of continuous innovation. I also took a class on doing venture startups from Josh Coates, the founder and former CEO of Mozy and current CEO of Instructure where I also currently work. This is where I gained most of my foundational knowledge about the different types of intellectual property. Lastly, must of my research has been done online, searching for great books relevant to my study and looking for the thought leaders on patent reform.

My group is making the claim that laws and systems related to intellectual property are broken in our increasingly digital world, specifically the patent and copyright systems. I have focused on patents, and as such, my annotated bibliography concerns further reading and thought leaders related to the broken patent system and solutions to going around it.

Further Reading

Jaffe, Adam B. and Josh Lerner. (Innovation and Its Discontents: How Our Broken Patent System is Endangering Innovation and Progress, and What to Do About It. Princeton, New Jersey, 2004). An important look at how the US patent system is stifling innovation rather than fostering it as it was originally designed to do. Also puts forth a three part solution to fixing the patent system: create incentives to motivate parties who have information about the novelty of a patent; provide multiple levels of patent review; and replace juries with judges and special masters to preside over certain aspects of infringement cases. [I found this as I was looking for others proposing patent reform by going around the patent system and stumbled across this post: Patent Reform without Congress].

Mulligan, Christina and Timothy B. Lee. (Scaling the Patent System, NYU Annual Survey of American Law, Forthcoming, 6 March, 2012). Proposes a simple but novel answer to the question about why firms in some industries ignore patents when developing new products. The answer is that firms are unable to discover all the patents their activities might infringe as the cost of finding all such relevant patents is prohibitively high. Attacks core premises of patent law, and provides suggestions to reforming the patent system to alleviate the problems created by non-indexable patents. [I found this searching for papers about the problems with the patent system].

NPR. (When Patents Attack, 22 July, 2011). A very interesting story about companies (i.e. patent trolls) acquiring and using patents to extort money from other companies, much like mafia shake-downs. Notes the general opinion of most software engineers and their disapproval of the patent system and patents in general. [I found this article mentioned in several articles critiquing the patent system and its existing problems].

Thought Leaders

Paul Graham (The Patent Pledge, August 2011). Paul Graham is a co-founder of the Y-Combinator seed capital firm, one of the most successful such firms helping many startups in their early days. His article The Patent Pledge puts forth the idea of creating a social norm where large companies agree not to go after small companies for patent infringement, and instead letting them gain traction and either licensing the patents or reforming as they get larger to not infringe. He is important as an influential thinker in the technology startup world and his idea of patent reform through social pressure vs. waiting on government reform. [I found a link to Paul's article through an article on patent reform, though Paul Graham and Y-Combinator are well-known in the technology world].

Baio, Andy (A Patent Lie: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work, Wired.com, 13 March , 2012). Andy Baio writes an opinion article each week for Wired, often about things related to intellectual property. Wired is well-regarded in the tech world. His article about how Yahoo used one of his patents in an attack against Facebook, and his point that patents are unnecessary in the software world as software code is covered by copyright law anyway, aligns well with our position on patent reform. [I found this article via a LinkedIn mailing on top headlines on the Internet the week the article was published].

Lawrence Lessig (Lessig 2.0). Lawrence Lessig is an academic an political activist. He has spoken out for copyright reform, legislative reform, free culture and the threat of patents to free/open source software and innovation, and net neutrality. [Found at the suggestion of Dr. Gideon Burton].