Tonight, during Lost, I tried to decide just how “willful” Locke-the-smoke-monster was being.  I didn’t reach a conclusion – and doubt I will until the end of the season.  In the mean time, my anonymous lawyer friend known as Sawyer sent me a nice essay on the notion of “willful infringement in the context of […]

The Apple patent suit against HTC really riled up my friend Sawyer.  I wasn’t planning on posting another missive from him until next week, but I thought this was particularly timely given the public statement from Apple, including a specific quote from Steve Jobs about its competitors stealing their patented inventions.  Sawyer explains why this […]

My friend Sawyer is back with another post in his series of talking about software patent issues.  As I mentioned before, Sawyer is a real person named after our intrepid friend in LOST (I haven’t seen it this week – no spoilers please) who has agreed to help us navigate the parallel universe known as […]

I love the stuff that ya’ll email me (or comment) after I write a post that challenge my thinking.  While occasionally the notes are hostile (which is mostly just entertaining), they are usually really thought provoking even when I disagree.  And, when they give me a new way to think about something, they are really […]

I have a number of friends who are patent attorneys.  Some have strong negative feelings about software patents that mirror mine while others keep me entertained by arguing both sides of the situation with themselves while I sit around and listen.  One of my friends – let’s call him Sawyer – has very strong negative […]

On Friday I’ll be in LA at Mahalo headquarters at 1pm making a guest appearance on Jason Calacanis’s This Week In Startups show.  I told Jason I’d be happy to discuss whatever he wanted to which I hope includes the Open Angel Forum, Startup Visa, Abolishing Software Patents, and all kinds of fun things around […]

I had an incredible experience yesterday.  My friend Phil Weiser, who is now the Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (I prefer to call him America’s Top Cop on Agriculture) invited me, my partner Jason Mendelson, and my wife Amy Batchelor to attend the Supreme Court Oral Arguments for […]

While I’m delighted that my iPhone syncs with my Exchange Server, I’ve been struggling to figure out why Microsoft licensed ActiveSync to Apple (and Google).  For a long time, I used a Windows Mobile device because of the integration with Exchange (I’ve never been a Blackberry fan).  Once the iPhone integrated with Exchange, that was […]

I haven’t written about software patents in a while.  I still hate them and think they are an illogical construct.  But first, a haiku from xkcd to warm you up (and make you smile). I woke up this morning to the announcement that Microsoft can’t sell Word anymore.  Apparently a judge in that hot bed […]