Day: 14 May 2008

Publius Valerius Publicola, otherwise known as Poplicola, Roman counsel, ‘friend of the people’, had his name pseudonymously used to author the Federalist Papers,  a collection of essays written over two hundred years ago (primarily by Hamilton, Madison and Jay) to strengthen and ratify the US constitution.

Those must have been heady and challenging days, as a new country was born, as new citizens tried to figure out who they were and what they stood for.

For many of us, the internet is a modern parallel, as we strive to understand what it is, what it stands for, how it is inhabited, how it is governed. It is fitting therefore that the Berkman Center, as part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, has launched the Publius Project.

The project is described as “essays and conversations about constitutional moments on the Net collected by the Berkman Center.“, as people try and recapture the spirit of the Federalist papers.

I’m delighted and honoured to be part of that process, part of the project; the first few essays have now been published; do take a look, and let’s get the conversations going. Comments welcome.

A recent article in the Economist highlighted the remarkable growth of Class 705 patents since they were made possible (see chart below, taken from that article):

While I am personally not a fan of such patents, I can understand why people would find them attractive, and why the number of patents sought in that class would mushroom. What really caught my notice was the passing reference to Josh Lerner’s work in this area:

Research by Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School found that patents on financial innovations were 27 times more likely than average to result in litigation. The defendants in these suits tend to be big investment banks and other financial institutions. Mr Lerner discovered that the most frequent plaintiffs in such lawsuits are patent-holding companies whose only line of business is the litigation of patent suits.

Now that is sad. “…the most frequent plaintiffs in such lawsuits are patent-holding companies whose only line of business is the litigation of patent suits“.