Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later

The question for the entire industry is the state and estate of the patent system and whether the Next Generation buildout is going to be a cooperative collaboration enabled by new tool dimensions and community empowerments through hardware and software democratization.

We know some would like to sidestep the patent process and throw the world of development and innovation open to giant wolves feeding on the altruistic brains and passion of the communities. Some go so far as to store up the knowledge necessary for future litigation and review: http://blogs.govexec.com/techinsider/archives/2007/06/patent_office_sells_patents_to.html
Patent Office, Google Provide Patent Database
By Daniel Pulliam
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 08:14 AM

But, the question among all others at present and for the foreseeable future is, if we're to respect patents, shouldn't we all agree to? I think the consensus must be 'yes', thus the apparent lawyer's squaredance appearance to the rollouts of the next generation tools and product betas from Microsoft, Apple, Sun, Google et al.

It appears we're watching all the players hashing out their own contentions about their own IP boundaries in conjunction with what places we're concerned with. Big strategies are happening now and some will make some huge steps forward and some will make some terrible mistakes.

If Microsoft is smart, an alliance with Novell AND Red Hat would bring all other Linuxes to heel.

An interesting bit of information about the past and a curious response about current time from Red Hat:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062703108.html
Red Hat CEO says he talked patents with Microsoft
By Jim Finkle
Reuters
Wednesday, June 27, 2007; 11:52 PM

BOSTON (Reuters) - Red Hat Inc. (RHT.N) Chief Executive Matthew Szulik said his company last year held talks with Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) over a patent agreement that broke down before the software giant signed a deal with Red Hat rival Novell Inc (NOVL.O).

The developer of Linux software, has yet to sign such a deal which could see Novell, its biggest rival, woo customers away from Red Hat and work on product development and sales with the world's No.1 software maker.

In an interview with Reuters, Szulik declined to say whether his company is now in negotiations with Microsoft over signing such a patent agreement.
"I can't answer the question," he said.

Officials with Microsoft couldn't be reached for comment.