>> Is Europe such a wasteland of software innovation? I don't uncritically accept that proposition. How do you measure that?
Totally anecdotal on my part. I'm looking at my own desktop, the only software from Europe is Avira. What large, innovative software companies can you name (without resorting to Google) that are from western Europe? I'm sure there's a couple... NOTHING like the huge numbers you see in the USA.
>> I also don't buy the idea that excluding others is the way to profit.
That's not really it -- close, but not it. Consider if you had $100MM and wanted to invest, and you had two scenarios. (1) Company ABC that has 50 patents filed on its core algorithms, 10 granted patents. Some will surely be invalid when issued just because, well, the USPTO is still working on quality in examing the software arts... not a perfect art by any means. But some will be valid. Won't be perfect. (2) Company XYZ, identical product offering to company ABC, but has no patents because all of the developers apparently subscribe to the Slashdot notion that all patents are bad ;). The product offering of both companies is quite innovative, but reality as it is, other smart companies could get within 99% of what they're doing by analyzing their product, within about 6 months and with modest investment of about $100k.
Questions:
(1) Which would you, as an investor, be more interested in?
(2) Which would you, as a developer interested in having a job, be more interested in?
(4) Which do you think would be worth more money? Have more profit potential?
(5) Which company would have more interest in further developing the product (knowing it can be reverse engineered w/ modest expenditure)?
To 99% of the /.'ers who out of hand dismiss all patents on software, if they answer this honestly, they'll see they're just silly.
Patents are a mixed bag -- they are hugely beneficial to some, but without question they have a social cost. The question is, though, how to encourage innovation? USA has strong patent rights, and the most innovative companies and labs, as a whole, than any other country in the world. As an experiment, USA tech. is a huge success. I think patent rights has a lot to do w/ that, and the scenario above plays out thousands of times / week everywhere in the world... a lot of places outside the US, however, the ABC co. is the norm -- difficult to attract investors!