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Anti Patents for Software & Biz Processes

 Brad Feld; Software Patent Tipping Point 
901_ 9/27/10- Larry talked with Brad Feld, Managing Director of the Foundry Group. Brad has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over 20 years. Prior to co-founding Foundry Group, he co-founded Mobius Venture Capital and, prior to that, founded Intensity Ventures. They discussed a very dicey topic, software patents. Brad started out with, "I want to make it clear that my point of view is only about software and business method patents. I really don't have a strong point of view about other types of patents. I think there is plenty of validity in the patent system, there's a role for the patent system, I think. For things outside of software and business methods, I haven't spent enough time intellectually working through them to have a strong point of view. On software patents specifically and business methods more broadly, I think they are invalid constructs. I think they are massive retardants on innovation; not things that protect and support, enhance or encourage innovation, which of course, is the point of the patent system in the first place. Brad has been very public and vocal about anti software patents for awhile, dating back to 1980's when he was in graduate school at MIT. It was the very beginning of the dynamics around business method patents and software patents just beginning to emerge - It was very loudly discussed that copyright and trade secret were more than adequate intellectual property protection and in fact viewed that software wasn't a valid construct to be patented, anymore than you can patent math or other algorithmic type things. About five years ago, especially as open source had become a mainstream thrust, and had demonstrated clearly that open source did not stifle innovation and that there were lots of different ways to monetize software even in the context of an open source universe. And then in fact, software that was not open source was even more protected without having to have any construct around patent. It's been very interesting over the past five years, to watch a number of people, both in the software industry and lawyers that have been in and around the patent system change their points of view to be anti software patent." Whether you are a leader or in the trenches, listen to this discussion...
Related Links: Foundry Group || Brad's Blog || Venture Capital History || Channel Link to More || S Patent and Trademark Office || Keywords: Brad Feld, Patents, Entrepreneur, Venture Capital, Funding, Portfolio Companies, Investing, Foundry Group, Intellectual Property - 9/27/10 bytes: 9803026 Listen to: Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group

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Due Diligence - Own It or Lose It

836_ 5/3/10 - Due diligence and relationships with investors
" Because if due diligence is left undone, it can undo potential relationships with investors". Larry talked with Mark Weakley, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, Boulder about this important and touchy subject. Larry asked, "What are some due diligence issues that could kill a deal? Mark shared what was almost an overwhelming group of points ...important for every entrepreneur to be aware of. "IP ownership, I would say. Just make sure you don't have joint ownership - make sure the company owns it! Often the technology that is developed, has been incubated or developed, then they form a company. So the organization of the company should include an assignment of the inventions; describe what the inventions are and make sure it's comprehensive. That's part of what is the consideration that the founders are paying to receive the shares of stock. Also have an invention assignment agreement and a non-disclosure agreement - most law firms that work with these companies have these as a form document. It's not like you have to pay a lot of money for them - but get one from a firm that does a lot of that work. So make sure that everyone that does work for the company has signed an agreement that says the IP belongs to the company. A contractor working for you has every right to file for a patent, as do you, but dual ownership makes the process of owning the technology, moot. On the cap table side, it is often unclear who owns what. We recommend not only do you document who owns what, issue stock certificates, that's the evidence of ownership." Listen for more how-to steps... Mark also pointed out that this and many other important topics to entrepreneurs including how to raise capital will be covered at the RVC Colorado Capital Conference on 5/12/10. See you there.
Related Links: Colorado Capital Conference || Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP Home || It's the Law Channel || Rockies Venture Club || Keywords: Mark Weakley, Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP, Due Diligence, Investors, Colorado Capital Conference, Entrepreneurs, Capital, IP > 5/3/10 Chnl: Law/Entrepreneurs bytes: 8456048 Listen to Mark Weakley, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen

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Global Arbitration, Best Practices

822_ 4/13/10 - Business people and international arbitration
 In today's global market, rules and regulations governing the business activities vary from country to country, culture to culture and international arbitration becomes a very important part of 'the contract'. At w3w3.com we've heard some amazing stories about these conflicts. We went to David Wilson, partner at Holme Roberts & Owen LLP (HRO) for some advice. David's guest was Josefa Sicard-Mirabal who serves as Director of Arbitration and ADR in North America for the ICC International Court of Arbitration. In this capacity, she represents and promotes ICC dispute resolution services in the United States and Canada, and advises North American attorneys and companies on all phases of arbitration, including negotiation of arbitration clauses, requests for arbitration, procedural issues and enforcement of arbitration awards. David said, "We're talking about some best practices for business people in international arbitration. From a business person's stand point, how you can make the experience of international arbitration more effective and actually more cost efficient for your company." Josefa describes clauses that have been drafted that really make it more difficult and costly for the business people. "One example would be putting in requirements for an arbitrator to have certain characteristics - which would make it very difficult to go out and find an arbitrator within that time frame that fits the qualification. So it is possible to make the qualifications too specific to be realistic. 1.) So we don't want to over specify arbitrator qualifications. 2.) Time frames for completion of the arbitration exist within the arbitration process. Additional specifications might very well work against you." Josefa has a proverb she uses often, "Dress me slowly because I'm in a rush". What that means is sometimes when you want to get a thing done very fast; you need to pay attention to the details.
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen LLP || ICC Home || ICC Arbitration || Josefa Sicard-Mirabal Bio || It's the Law Channel || Keywords: David Wilson, Josefa Sicard-Mirabal, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, HRO, International Court of Arbitration, ICC, ADR, Arbitration, Litigation, Global 4/13/10 bytes: 7527239 Chnl: HRO LISTEN to David Wilson & Josefa Sicard-Mirabal

HB1193 Drives Amazon out of Colorado

Amazon says 'No' to Colorado-based Associates
808_ 3/15/10 - Dear Colorado-based Amazon Associate: (More Details) We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to inform you that the Colorado government recently enacted a law to impose sales tax regulations on online retailers. The regulations are burdensome and no other state has similar rules.

Larry talked to Dave Taylor, founder of Intuitive.com and asked for an overview of the newly passed legislation known as HB1193. We've heard rumblings and a lot of discontent recently. Now we're beginning to feel the effects, and it hurts. "A couple of months ago the legislature in Colorado looked at all the ways tax money was coming in and said, god, there is some of it that we're not getting - and some of it is Internet related transactions. And so, they created a tax on affiliate transactions. Which is to say, if you on your web site were to link to a book on Amazon, up until today (March 8th, 2010) Amazon might have paid you a very small percentage of that transaction as a thank you for enabling that person to find the stuff on their site. Basically the Legislature looked at it and said, you know, that's a transaction that we should be able to generate some tax revenue from. They drafted a bill called HB1193 that basically said any company..." Listen for more... Amazon's email included: "Regrettably, as a result of the new law, we have decided to stop advertising through Associates based in Colorado. We plan to continue to sell to Colorado residents, however, and will advertise through other channels, including through Associates based in other states." We have a Link to the entire Amazon email below...
Related Links: Intuitive Systems Blog || Read Amazon Letter || Amazon Mastering Change || w3w3.com Blog & Books || Keywords: Dave Taylor, Intuitive Systems, Amazon, Associates, Sales Tax, Colorado, HB1193, Affiliate Transactions 3/15/10 bytes: 5008825 Chnl: News LISTEN to Dave Taylor, Intuitive.com

Examining the Internet's Ecosystem

Digital Broadband Migration: Ecosystem 786_ FEB 1/2010
The Digital Broadband Migration 2010: Examining the Internet's Ecosystem. Dale Hatfield kicked off the early Sunday morning conference introducing Phil Weiser... who is currently on leave from the Law School here at CU, and he currently holds the position of Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Anti-Trust Division at the Department of Justice. Phil Weiser introduces the topic of discussion lending background for understanding. Innovation is critical to our economic future and the tools we talk about today, entrepreneurship and the role of competition policy are critical ingredients. Part of the reason why this is so, is when you have established firms they may not be as inclined to experiment with disruptive technologies, deploy them, and they may even see them as a threat and try to stop them. This creates a real challenge...Join us next week as Phil Weiser, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice moderates the panel with Meredith Attwell Baker, Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission; Brad Feld, Managing Director, Foundry Group; Dale Hatfield, Exec. Dir., Silicon Flatirons Center, Former Chief Engineer, Federal Communications Commission; Larissa Herda, Chairman, President and CEO, tw telecom, inc.; Michael Powell Former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission, Sr. Advisor, Providence Equity; Lisa Tanzi, VP and Deputy General Counsel for the Business Division, Microsoft Corporation. See the Event Photos
Related Links: Silicon Flatirons Program || SF Home || CTP Channel || Change || Keywords: Dale Hatfield, Phil Weiser, Digital Broadband Migration, Silicon Flatirons, Internet's Ecosystem, Innovation, Competition Policy CTP, > Chnl: CTP bytes: 24942043 - 2/8/10 LISTEN to Dale Hatfield, Exec. Director, Silicon Flatirons Center, University of Colorado at Boulder, Law School and Phil Weiser, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, Department of Justice

ARRA and HIPPA Impacts on IT

780_ Questions and answers about ARRA and HIPPA
The 'Dear Ned' series has gotten a number of questions recently about the 'American Reinvestment and Recovery Act' or ARRA, and how it impacts IT.
Applied Trust cofounders Trent Hein and Ned McClain continue with the Dear Ned Series providing invaluable answers to your most pressing IT questions. Trent started out with, "What can Ned tell us about ARRA and how it will affect your IT department and especially healthcare? Ned was quick to reply, "Good timing on this question because on September 23rd, 2009, these new ARRA regulations came into effect. As Trent mentioned this definitely affects healthcare, and certainly if you are a hospital or healthcare provider of any kind, or insurance company of almost any kind, you are obviously covered by these healthcare requirements. But what's particularly interesting is that most companies handle some health information. A recent survey showed that 57% of companies believed they were HIPPA covered, that they had to follow these federal regulations for healthcare, so this is particularly important to most of us. If you are administering a benefits plan where we get to see health information of any kind, if we're transmitting health information electronically, in any fashion, you likely are covered by these regulations. They have become significantly more stringent with the ARRA Act. Before they covered security and privacy but now there is a lot more to think about. There are three new things to think about in addition to the HIPPA requirements of a year ago. 1.) Particularly, there are new requirements for having a business associate agreement or some kind of contract with each company that you share health information with. So if you're a service provider dealing with mail lists, for example, you may have clients asking you to sign a business agreement contract for HIPPA, and you need to be prepared to do that." Listen for more and ask your questions.
Related Links: Ask Your Own Questions || Dear Ned Channel || Women in IT Channel || Applied Trust Engineering || ATE is Hiring || Find It || Keywords: Ned McClain, Trent Hein, Dear Ned, Applied Trust Engineering, IT Department, American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, ARRA, HIPPA > Channel: Dear Ned 6507194 bytes 1/25/10 LISTEN to Trent Hein & Ned McClain, Applied Trust Engineering

Google ranks Colorado’s w3w3.com Number One

764_ Google ranks Colorado’s w3w3.com number one for the “Business Internet Talk Radio” show
(Google has over 25,000,000 listings).
We were ranked higher than many big names including Voice America, etc. Check it at… The same is true for the category “Entrepreneurs Internet Talk Radio” show… see at…
In January 2010 w3w3.com is celebrating our 11th year as an all-business Internet talk radio show. We have a very active Podcast Directory and our Blog . A very popular section is our Web Community Calendar that supports, Business, Government and Education. Also check out our very popular Business Event Photos as many years are archived there. We also have numerous Channels that are focused on specific topic areas and they are on our home page. If you don’t see what you want there, check out our Find It page where you can search by name, topic, company or industry as we have 1000s of pages archived. We have many other pages and we would like your opinion and input, tell us what you like, or don't like, and what you'd like to see. Send us an email to [email protected] or give us a call at 303.860.9393 and please feel free to post your comments on our Blog. Everyone at w3w3® would like to, Thank You! Have a SUPER 2010!!! (Can you believe how fast this year has gone by?) ... 2010 is nearly here! Reach out for new opportunities and Celebrate the New Year! - 12/28/09

Patents can make or break a company

757_ Patents can make or break a company
We all know what a patent is, right? Generally, we do. "A patent covers a new invention that has to be new and useful, novel but not obvious." Well, OK... what does that really mean? Larry interviewed Mark Yaskanin, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP who heads up the Patent Group and Scott Bialecki, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP who heads up the IP Litigation Group. "A patent is actually a teaching of the invention, it explains the invention and it is a limited monopoly for a period of 20 years from the filing date of the application and it gives the patentee the right to exclude others from practicing an invention that's described in a patent. People need to understand that just because they get a patent doesn't necessarily mean they can actually practice the technology covered by the patent." What we see in the energy area, are all these ideas that come up, but at different points in the cycle. That could be an idea, another point in the cycle is they've filed a provisional application - another point is that they've filed a non-provisional application or that they've actually got a granted patent and they have, eventually, some sales of the product. And of course wherever you are in that cycle, there are different values associated with that. "One area that is getting a lot of attention is the energy field. We've seen clients come to us with expectations to purchase a target company and they would like to know what this target company has in terms of Intellectual Property, is it good IP and what really is the scope of what they're buying. This also applies to companies seeking to sell. Regardless of what side of the proposition you're on it definitely helps to have a patent attorney take a look at the IP and help figure out what is it you're buying or what is it you can do to help position things better to sell." Listen for more details...
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP Home || It's the Law Channel || It's the Law Archives || US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) || Keywords: Mark Yaskanin, Scott Bialecki, Holme Roberts & Owen, Patents, IP, Litigation, Entrepreneurs > Channel: Law 13656428 bytes 12/14/09 LISTEN

Raising Money - Your Startup

754_ Raising money for your startup 
Larry talked with Mark Weakley, Partner, Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP, Boulder about a frequently asked question from entrepreneurs. "The recurring question is, 'what kind of corporate entity should I form, a corporation or limited liability company?' There haven't been a lot of regulatory changes, nothing is driving this, but I have this conversation, every week with new clients. The questions comes up often because there are lots of opinions out there from people that entrepreneurs talk to about what they should be. I think contrary to those opinions, there aren't hard and fast rules, but there are different considerations to go over. I think that the prudent thing is for an entrepreneur to have appreciation of what the different forms of business entities are, and why certain investors are predisposed to one or the other. Then it's a matter of saying, OK, based on the facts that I know and where I think we are going, how should I set this up, now?" Larry asked, "Getting right into it, what are the differences between these C, LLC and S corporations?" After getting into the differences between a corporation and a LLC. Mark pointed out that, "Early-stage entrepreneurs want to know what form of business entity should they use, particularly if they intend to raise money be it from friends, family, angels or venture capital funds. Entrepreneurs receive as many opinions on this question as the number of people they pose the question to. Some of those facts are known now, so the hard part is the conjecture on facts that won't be known until sometime in the future." Before Mark addressed this question, "Is it true that venture capitalist investors will always require their portfolio companies to be corporations?" he detailed the primary pros and cons for choosing a LLC versus a corporation. This is very important information for entrepreneurs ...listen for more...
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP Home || It's the Law Channel || It's the Law Archives || Podcast Directory || Keywords: Mark Weakley, Holme Roberts & Owen, LLP, Corporations, S Corporation, LLC, Entrepreneurs, Capital, Taxes > Channel: Law 15212378 bytes - 12/7/09 LISTEN

Open Source licenses are enforceable

748_ We know these licenses are enforceable
 In an interview, a number of years ago, a Red Hat representative indicated they were being derided by people in the open source world for being too commercial. This time Larry interviewed Jason Haislmaier, partner at Holme Roberts & Owen, LLC Boulder. Larry says Jason is known as the 'open source legal guru in Colorado'. Jason went onto say, "I think now you really think of open source as being synonymous with commercial usage. It wasn't always that way, Open Source had its birth as what we called 'free software' which was really academic, it was far more ideologically based around the freedom of the source code than it was looking to have a commercial application. We can charge or we cannot, but it's still a license, and we know these licenses are enforceable, which is taken for granted. It's the same thing 'proprietary software went through back in the 90s, there was a time when we didn't have a legal precedent. It wasn't until we had a court case in the mid-90's that it was actually determined, that we could actually point to a case that said that. Same thing with open source licensing until very recently. Again, answering the obvious for a lot of folks, but more importantly for companies that are staking either their futures, the money of their investors, public money in the case of public companies on open source licensed based business models. We now have that much more legal assurance and I think that's certainly one of the factors that has contributed to the increasing use of open source software...listen for more...
Related Links: Holme Roberts & Owen, LLC Home || It's the Law Channel || SFC - Crash Course: Open Source || Find It || Keywords: Jason Haislmaier, Holme Roberts & Owen, LLC, Open Source, Licenses, Red Hat, Business Models > Channel: Law 13735626 bytes - 11/30/09 LISTEN