By David French
News reports have indicated that at least one of Apple’s patents which were the subject of the $1 billion jury verdict in California in August are in trouble with the U.S. patent office.
Here is one reference: U.S. Office Rejects 2nd Apple Patent
And another: Key Apple patent used against Samsung under fire
Any suggestion that Apple’s patent has been conclusively invalidated by the U.S. Patent Office is not correct. The proceedings at the U.S. patent office are not yet over. However, this raises a very interesting situation which may create a dilemma for the trial judge.
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By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are The Kernel, Both Sides of the Table, Venture Village, Business Insider and Financial Post.
Some entrepreneurs are more equal than others
Social decadence and a poisonous educational culture in the West is fooling a generation of young people into thinking they can pen runaway entrepreneurial success stories. But they can’t, writes Milo Yiannopoulos.
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By Maurice Smith
It has been nearly 20 years since Scottish Enterprise, then a fairly new economic agency, launched an inquiry into Scotland’s comparatively low business birth rate.
In 1993 the talk was all about improving access to finance, encouraging university spin-outs and challenging a culture that was seen to be risk averse and over dependent on jobs from big employers, public and private.
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By Alexandra Reid
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Forbes, David Meerman Scott, Harvard Business Review, Guardian and Wired.
Why most venture-backed companies fail
The current VC model is a play on probability. But this author says this “numbers game” theory, where some will win and some will lose, is not an acceptable approach, especially when fund managers’ fees can reach in the millions while investments may result in massive losses.
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By David French
This post goes right to the very heart of a patent and what a patent can and cannot do in the marketplace. And it has a twist, if you are prepared to bear with the analysis to the end.
In my prior post on the subject, I referred to an important hearing held on Dec. 6 this year before Trial Judge Lucy H. Koh. During the hearing, Samsung tried to limit the scope of the consequences of the $1-billion jury decision that arose out of the trial held in August. Among the numerous matters discussed, Apple asked that the jury’s award be increased by an extra one third of a billion dollars as “punitive damages.” The judge can also reduce the amount of the damages awarded if the jury has been unreasonable. Other issues were discussed, but the judge reserved her decision.
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By David French
