patrick.net

As a Virginia Tech Alum, I just like to pass this on:

Virginia Tech family members across the country have united to declare this Friday, April 20th, an " Orange and Maroon Effect" day to honor those killed in the tragic events on campus Monday, and to show support for Virginia Tech students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, and friends. " Orange and Maroon Effect" was born several years ago as an invitation to Tech fans to wear orange and maroon to Virginia Tech athletic events. We invite everyone from all over the country to be a part of the Virginia Tech family this Friday, to wear orange and maroon to support the families of those who were lost, and to support the school and community we all love so much.

Headset, I think that is the record, the weapon with the most casualties. Just something I heard, maybe confabulating.

It's been in just about every war for the last 50 years.

BTW, to add to support Randy's point. You do not need to be a monopoly to be found to violate anti trust. All businesses are bound by the three main acts.

Skibum, do you remember under Clinton when they decided there were too many doctors graduating so they tightened medical school admissions to protect the livelihood.

Any job that requires no specific training, education, or anything other than paying a fee to get in and taking a joke of an exam is not a profession.

I would have to agree, the agent who sold my house last time was totally incompetent and was engaged in borderline illegal activities. She made a lot more money than the law firm that did my green card application.

I would think a knife or a spear actually holds the real record for killing people.

I know it's a tragedy, and people died, but more people died in car accidents that day than the Virginia killings.

I would think a knife or a spear actually holds the real record for killing people.

Fate is the #1 killer of all times.

I’d venture to guess even Realtors ™ would be reluctant to call themselves professionals in the strict and narrow sense of the word - “def: engaged in one of the learned professions” as in lawyers, doctors, etc.

skibum,

You would be wrong to assume that, sir!

http://www.webhomeusablog.com/2007/03/real_estate_con.html

Although we Realtors see ourselves as Professionals, like Doctors and Lawyers, we've never gotten our due from Hollywood with Doctor Shows like ER, General Hospital or Scrubs; and Lawyer Shows like LA Law, Perry Mason or Law and Order.

Lets not confuse, purposely or otherwise, monopoly. patents, and licensing

Monopoly is designed to restrict competition for the sake of restricting competition, usually as favors for the politically connected

patents and royalties are designed to encourage innovation by allowing the developer to recoupe costs and make a profit for a specific period

licensing is designed to insure competence in a profession

Just because all have in common the restriction of trade does not make them equal.

I just want to short circuit the "patents are OK, and they are a monopoly, thus monopoly must be OK, and since monopoly is OK, gov monopolys must be peachy also" brand of tortured logic I see coming.

I know it’s a tragedy, and people died, but more people died in car accidents that day than the Virginia killings.

I know. But people perceive things differently.

I guess it is not politically correct to say that it was an acceptable consequence of life.

Skibum, do you remember under Clinton when they decided there were too many doctors graduating so they tightened medical school admissions to protect the livelihood.

They never "tightened medical school admissions." I'll agree that there is always the impetus from the AMA to limit the number of MDs practicing to keep the profession a premium - that's what all professional organizations do. The Bar exam does it for lawyers, for example. However, technically, standards for admissions have not changed significantly for decades. They increased the standards of accredidation for medical schools themselves, thereby causing a few of the sub-par ones to close. Same end result, but in some ways good because some of the crappier schools went out of business.

Headset, I guess your concern is founded but as someone with a business background I try to caution against the opposite, which is that monopoly is a bad word and is always wrong. I remember a conversation I had with a CEO of a compnay I worked for and I made the comment, 'that patent will give you a nice monopoly on that technology.' The idiot actually tried to correct me. This is a typical PHD who must by definition know everything about everything.

Any job that requires no specific training, education, or anything other than paying a fee to get in and taking a joke of an exam is not a profession.

It's all relative...

HARM,

Thanks for the link. Hilarious. I don't even know what to say to that. I'm dumbfounded.

"Although we Realtors see ourselves as Professionals, like Doctors and Lawyers, we’ve never gotten our due from Hollywood with Doctor Shows like ER, General Hospital or Scrubs; and Lawyer Shows like LA Law, Perry Mason or Law and Order. "

Shows how they rate. Even the Taxicab "profession" had its own show and a movie.

I thought they actually tightened the number of admissions. No point being made, I was just wondering if you remembered it.

Flip that House, and Sell Me are fun shows.

So, the point is, we will tolerate many types of monopoly for many reasons, it's only when an activity is 'easy' that we invoke High Market Principles of anti-monopolism and so on...

Shows how they rate. Even the Taxicab “profession” had its own show and a movie.

Hey, for that matter, even the "oldest profession" has had movies (Pretty Woman, or for that matter any skin flick) and shows (Cops...) about them.

As DS says, it's all relative.

Yes, I think that is the gist.

They increased the standards of accredidation for medical schools themselves, thereby causing a few of the sub-par ones to close. Same end result, but in some ways good because some of the crappier schools went out of business.

Around the same time, there was a Dateline that showed one doctor that was involved in a few patient deaths got his degree and certification from a medical school in Costa Rica(?) - where apparently the first year was taught entirely in spanish. And the doctor, of course, didn't speak any.

Different, after what happened to Microsoft in the 90s I knew that no industry was safe.

Eburd, that's ok isn't the first year just the ethics part? Who needs it?

Man Iraq is really sucking lately.

Malcolm

See! This is what I saw coming:

"So, the point is, we will tolerate many types of monopoly for many reasons, it’s only when an activity is ‘easy’ that we invoke High Market Principles of anti-monopolism and so on… "

But I do see your point Malcolm, about monopoly being a bad word

Eburd, that’s ok isn’t the first year just the ethics part? Who needs it?

lol.

Malcolm,

I wonder - maybe the restricting of med school slots you're thinking of was the attempt back in the 1990's to reduce the number of residency positions funded by Medicare? In an attempt by the "Contract with America" folks to balance the budget, part of it was to cut funding of residencies by medicare, which basically pays for a large part of a teaching hospital's costs for training doctors. That's a whole other can of worms, though.

HARM Says:
April 18th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Thanks, Malcolm. Just curious, do you work in a field related to corporate/IP law?

My background is in logistics, but a formative job was in a startup involving new fuel cell technology. I have a Bachelor of Science degree in Production Operations Management. My main knowledge comes from my Master's degree in Entrepreneurship. This stuff was hammered into us. Each class basically was the same core concept with a different direction. Of course my direct experience in real estate is what I try to contribute on this board. So in a nutshell, that's me.

I try to desensitize people to terms like monoploy or disruption because these are hot button words that politicians use to work people up into some anti whatever frenzy.

"My background is in logistics,"

Ho, brother! I have a MS in Logisticd Management thanks to the Air Force policy of overeducating its officers.

"Does that mean we could one day argue that ‘housing should be managed and allocated by a central, responsible authority on a needs basis in most developed societies’?"

I in humor laid out the ideal housing market. The seller lists it with the government listing office, and then a seller goes through the government board screening and then pays the government determined price. It's an improvement on Russia's old housing system!

Headset, that must have sucked. In an APICS class I made friends with a marine logistics guy. He was cool, he had a photo of him saluting Ronald Reagan getting off of Marine 1. The part of logistics that is fun is the creativity a small or medium company allows but it would suck to be in the military doing it.

Patents are not "monopolies" from an economic definition, but a barrier to entry which may be used to defend market power. Patents are different from other forms of market power because they are a specific type of legislation which is accessible to anyone wishing to participate in the free market as innovators. The only barriers to establishing a patent aside from innovating something are some marginal fees and basic form-filling-out skills.

Defending a patent is an entirely different thing.

And currently, the patent system is 99% broken, in my opinion. Far too many junk patents get awarded for things that are prior art or obvious conclusions.

Also, in general, you are not _supposed_ to be able to patent software algorithms. You can patent formulae, but not algorithms. Thus, Zillow could patent the way the do property value estimates. MLS could not (or should not be able to) patent a pile of code which serves up records from a database.

second seller is buyer in that post. sorry :(

DS says

"There is 1) licensing meaning certification, and 2) licensing meaning passing on the right to use some protected technology to another party, usually in exchange for a fee. I was referring to the latter, you were apparently referring to the former."

That is why I put the term "royalty" in my statement.

Now your writing is much more articulate than my brutish prose (and thus a delight to read, I might add) , but your well crafted response is just proving my point.

Randy, I agree with the patent system being broken. In business we don't mince words, patents are a legal monopoly. It is in every textbook and I guarantee you will see it that way if you do a search on legal forms of monopoly.

I am seriously considering retiring from the rat race in a year or six (i.e. nothing finite),

Holy cow. What's your income strategy?

Did you do -that- well from stock options at G?

A friend of a friend just retired from Apple with $9mil in stock options after 9 years. :(

You can patent software code.
Can computer software be patented?
Yes, filing a patent, Even though you can't get a patent on a mathematical formula, you may be able to get protection for a specific application of a formula. Thus, software may qualify for a patent if the patent application produces a useful, concrete and tangible result.

http://www.meredithkeyhani.com/patent/software.html

HeadSet Says:
your well crafted response is just proving my point.

I see.

Just on the question of 'protected' technologies, anything that is written is protected by copyright automatically. Proving you were the first to write it is a different story, but computer code, musical composition and essays and poems are all automatically self-copyrighted under the law, unlike 'algorithms' (moot and evolving) and 'look and feel'. (Or are they? Microsoft recently succeeded in patenting the y-axis in a recent flurry of IP activity.)

but see:

MS seeks patent experts - no patent experience necessary

Microsoft is recruiting patent engineers - but complete ignorance of patent law is not considered an obstacle to being hired, according to the job ad.

Last year, Redmond began outsourcing the task of researching and analysing patents to a firm called Intellevate, and the team is based in New Delhi, India. The applicant must be a computer science or electrical engineering PhD, and will be involved in prior art searches, patentability research, "file wrapper analysis", "claim scope mapping" and technical analysis.

But "patent experience" itself "is helpful but not mandatory," for potential recruits. To emphasize the point, the ad stresses that "although advance knowledge of patent law is helpful, it is not required".

Over the past eighteen months, Microsoft has dramatically accelerated its patent filing activity. Many claims, such as tabbing through a web page have little chance of withstanding the most basic prior art examination.

Just before Christmas Microsoft was granted a patent for online bill payment (which includes the innovation "'the consumer is in direct control of the amount to be paid and the payment date") and fine-grained IM presence - ("... a participant might not want someone else to know whether or not the individual is logged in or out to lunch. Thus, one might want to prohibit other individuals from viewing such presence information").

The USPTO has also granted Microsoft's Expedia a patent for matching a quote with an offer, which claimed -

"An effective electronic exchange system for satisfying an offer by a purchaser with a quote from a supplier has eluded those skilled in the art."

Other recent filings include attempting to patent the "y-axis", the "IS NOT" operator in Basic, interactive test feedback, and reading ahead 20 records at a time in a database, when the user clicks the Previous or Next buttons.

Along with other companies, Microsoft is mining India's brilliant engineering talent to save money. But judging by recent form, it may as well save even more money by dropping the requirement for PhDs altogether - and simply employ children.