I knew I would be touching a raw nerve with my last two posts,
on patents. But I was really surprised at the divergence of opinion.
Entrepreneurs overwhelmingly supported my stance that software patents
hamper innovation and need to be abolished, but friends at Microsoft,
IBM, and Google were outraged at my recommendation. The big companies’
executives argued that abolishing patents would hurt their ability to
innovate and thus hamper the nation’s economic growth. (They believe
that companies like theirs create the majority of jobs and innovations,
and they claim that without patents they cannot defend their
innovations.) I am not convinced that software patents give Google any
advantage over Microsoft and Yahoo, or make IBM’s databases any better
than Oracle’s. But I do know one thing for sure: it isn’t the big
companies that create the jobs or the revolutionary technology
innovations: it is startups. So if we need to pick sides, I vote for the
startups.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Startups Or Behemoths: Which Are We Going To Bet On?
Author: Vivek Wadhwa
