Michael Q. Lee and Software Patents
[ Linux Insider ]
US Attorney Michael Q. Lee wrote many opinion pieces for the journo-lobbying magazine Linuxinsider about the EU software patent debate.
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Nelson Cruz:
In the Honorable Mention in The Patent Hall of Fame we can see what Mr. Lee is all about. He is credited with identifying the "choke point" of a competitor's business pipeline and devising a "silver bullet patent" to stop it. It's something like finding in what road of development a competitor is and putting a well placed landmine there. While Mr. Lee may advocate that patents promote innovation, he in fact seems to help companies use patents as anti-competitive weapons. He may do it for small start-up companies like the text says, but it is still anti-competitive behavior. And we never know on whose hands the patents he writes may end up during their 20 year life.
Worth mentioning is his favorite "silver bullet patent" that he wrote for 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company now owned by Johnson & Johnson. It covers using computers to analyze potential drug leads. As the honorable mention goes: Any company that wants to use computerized drug discovery has to license the patent. "When we patented it, people said 'Wow, I can't believe they patented that because it's so broad,' " says Lee. "That means I did my job protecting my client."
That may be, but my guess is somebody at the USPTO didn't do his job...
Also interesting is the fact that Mr. Lee co-wrote an article called "How to Take Advantage of Business Method Patents".
Playing by the rules as they presently exist in the US is one thing. Trying to convince Europe to adopt the same ridiculous and harmful rules is something else entirely.
