Bill Gates 'would be the first to say that the patent system can always be tuned' 2005-01-05
[ Microsoft and Patents | Microsoft vs. Eolas | Open Letter 76-02-03]
Bill Gates shares von Hayek's view that the patent system was an incentive system. Gates applies this view to the copyright system as well. He rejects a general criticism of Intellectual Property by 'new modern-day sort of communists', however his remarks are more related to copyright and he affirms that 'the patent system can always be tuned--including the U.S. patent system. There aresome goals to cap some reform elements.'. Many observers are aware that Microsoft plays a key role in Software Patent Lobbying in the EU. But there is little evidence that patent licensing is a major business for Microsoft and Microsoft gets higher revenue under a patent regime in the field of software. Microsoft (as FFII) is a strong supporter of copyright law and dependend on it.
Interview with Cnet News.com
Source In recent years, there's been a lot of people clamoring to reform and restrict intellectual-property rights. It started out with just a few people, but now there are a bunch of advocates saying, "We've got to look at patents, we've got to look at copyrights." What's driving this, and do you think intellectual-property laws need to be reformed? No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist. And this debate will always be there. I'd be the first to say that the patent system can always be tuned --including the U.S. patent system. There aresome goals to cap some reform elements. But the idea that the United States has led in creating companies, creating jobs, because we've had the best intellectual-property system--there's no doubt about that in my mind, and when people say they want to be the most competitive economy, they've got to have the incentive system. Intellectual property is the incentive system for the products of the future.
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2003-12-04 CA Mark Cox: Microsoft announces major changes to IP policy
Finally, BradSmith [Microsoft senior vice president and general counsel ]said that as a company, they will take a holistic approach to intellectual property issues, committed to IP indemnification of MS's own products, and supplementing this by becoming a provider of another set of IP licences. "We started thinking hard about this a year ago," Smith said. "At the top of the company, there was a sense this was the right direction in which to head," First though, they had to decide how to do that, which led to the decision to recruit and hire Phelps. "The other conclusion that was important to the timeline was talking to and listening to other companies in our industry to take the step in response to what people were most interested in having us do." Finally, [Brad] Smith indicated that Microsoft doesn't see this initiative as a big money-maker for them. "I don't anticipate this is going to have a material impact on the company's revenue n the foreseeable future. We're doing this to promote collaboration."
