Statements from venture capitalists
This list is just the vocal venture capitalists against software patents.
Contents
Brad Feld
[...] patents on software are a massive tax on and retardant of innovation in the US.[1]
Art Reisman
Patents should never be awarded to: 1) ideas; 2) processes, recipes, software programs.
Todd Vernon
Many think that Software Patents are stupid. I conceptually agree with this statement. Having spent what seems like millions of hours constructing these, baby sitting them, defending them; it is really all wasted time and effort, at least in a conceptual sense. There is no way for a software engineer or system architect to have any idea what exists out there to either copy or avoid (whatever the motivation).
Laura Creighton
Software Patents have not protected the Small inventor from the Big Company -- instead they have made legal expertise an additional barrier to entry into the software business. And they scare investors like me out of investing in software businesses. In the United States there are plenty of companies whose fervent desire is to become successful enough to make their founders comfortable -- and no more successful. They are trying very hard to remain 'too small to be worth suing'. This does not benefit Society either.
Fred Wilson
- How Patent Trolls Are A Tax On Innovation
- Why Patent Trolls Are A Tax On Innovation (continued)
- More Patent Nonsense
- Permissionless Innovation and Patents
- Enough Is Enough, 1 June 2011
- Investors Speaking Up About Patents Harming Innovation, 7 June 2011, Techdirt - mentions and quotes Fred Wilson
Brad Burnham
Jason Mendelson
- The End of Software Patents?, August 31st, 2009
- 76% of Venture Capitalists Believe that Software Patents are Important (NOT!), May 6th, 2010
Chris Sacca
[T]he average Silicon Valley start-up or even medium sized company, no matter how truly innovative they are, I have no doubt that aspects of what they're doing violate patents right now. And that's what's fundamentally broken about this system right now.[2]
Related pages on ESP Wiki
- Brad Feld on software patents
- Which sectors are for and against
- 2008 Berkeley Patent Survey
- Statements and quotes
External links
- Software Patents: the Investor's and Venture Capitalist's perspective, by FFII
- Declaration By Venture Investors and Venture-Funded Companies on Software Patents
- A PR mentioning that the NoSoftwarePatents campaign is supported by Benchmark Capital and Danny Rimer, a partner at Index Ventures
- [1] Good read on the very same issues.
