Finnish SMEs rely on time to market and secrecy, not patents

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Finnish SMEs rely on time to market and secrecy, not patents

Forum » Front-page / Software Patents » Finnish SMEs rely on time to market and secrecy, not patents

Started by:

andreasr
Date: 02 Dec 2006 22:16
Number of posts: 2

RSS: New posts

Summary:

So Microsoft and SAP claim SMEs need software patents? Past economic evidence has shown this is nonsense. The results of a project of the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA), published in November, add further empirical evidence.

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Finnish SMEs rely on time to market and secrecy, not patents

andreasr 02 Dec 2006 22:16

So Microsoft and SAP claim SMEs need software patents? Not only are SME organisations opposed to software patents. Past economic evidence also has shown how wrong this is, see for instance the IFIS Survey. The results of a project of the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (ETLA), published in November, add further empirical evidence.

In their paper "Can´t block, must run: Small firms and appropriality", Byma and Leiponen from Cornell University examine how several hundred small Finnish companies reap benefits of their innovations (software companies are included in "R&D or technology intensive services"). Their findings come as no surprise:

This study demonstrates that few of the smallest firms benefit from patenting, even if they are R&D intensive, innovative, cooperate in R&D, or operate in discrete or high technology industries.
Only firm size explains the preference to use patents to protect innovations in our sample of small firms. Instead, the strategic choices for most small firms are between speed to market and secrecy.

And they conclude that…

… the emphasis on patents in the debates concerning the institutional environment for innovation may be misplaced.

Last edited on 03 Dec 2006 11:08 by pieterh Show more

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Unfold Finnish SMEs rely on time to market and secrecy, not patents by

andreasr, 02 Dec 2006 22:16

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A different view

aallord 19 Jan 2007 14:31

One of the biggest questions I have had over the software patient is simply this; how it a violation legally proved?

Software is compiled, all software vendors place in their license that this software cannot be reversed engineered; so how is a violation proven without a legal agreement being broke?

I am in the US, software patents have killed many of business. Look at MS, once 49.00 for an upgrade; now $249. Yet there is really one true competitor right now, Apple as Linux and open source though a better solution for most people don't have the ease of software installation that both MS and Mac have.

So I agree completely, software patients have killed innovation, companies, security and a whole mess of other things.

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Unfold A different view by

aallord, 19 Jan 2007 14:31

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