Amazon-Chef Jeff Bezos: „Patentkämpfe sind ungesund“

Mit ‚The Patent, Used as a Sword‚ warfen Charles Duhigg und Steve Lohr in der vergangenen Woche einen umfassenden Blick auf aktuelle (Software-)Patentkämpfe. Der lesenswerte NYTimes-Artikel glänzt jedoch erst mit der notwendigen Korrektur von Ian Betteridge, der die angedeuteten (Finanz-)Dimensionen zurechtrückt.

Read the NYT piece, and you would think that the technology market has shifted from being about research and development of new products to being about acquisition of patents. Given that this is based on a single year, when some very big patent portfolios came on the market in one-off deals that aren’t likely to be repeated in the future, that’s a long way from the truth.

Heute ruft Amazon-Chef Jeff Bezos nach mehr staatlicher Regulierung, wohlwissend, dass auch ihn die juristischen Grabenkämpfe im Smartphone- und Tablet-Markt eher früher als später treffen.

Patents are supposed to encourage innovation and we’re starting to be in a world where they might start to stifle innovation. Governments may need to look at the patent system and see if those laws need to be modified because I don’t think some of these battles are healthy for society. I love technology, I love invention, I like rapid change, and really it’s the golden age of wireless devices and mobile devices.

Natürlich hat er Recht, wie schon 2011, im Gespräch mit Steven Levy.

Bezos: For many years, I have thought that software patents should either be eliminated or dramatically shortened. It’s impossible to measure the toll they’ve had on the software industry, but on balance, it has been negative.

Levy: But without software patents, you wouldn’t have exclusive rights to 1-Click shopping.

Bezos: If that were the price of having a dramatic reduction in software patents, it would be great.