How the law stifles wireless innovation
We all tend to mock US President George W. Bush for uttering the immortal (yet, it is said, apocryphal) words, “the French don’t even have a word for ‘entrepreneur’.” Ho, ho, very satirical. In the UK, the system for patenting innovations is heavily stacked against developers, inventors and entrepreneurs. In the wireless field, where companies in Britain and Europe ought to be enjoying ‘first mover’ advantage, this is turning into a disaster. The lost ground is being made up by companies from further afield while the only beneficiaries here are large companies and lawyers.They are all very nice people but, at the end of the day, they are solicitors.” That’s the view of Phil Steeples, the personable Managing Director of Startlok. His company provides solutions in the mobile security space: “we offer identity management without containing any personal information on your mobile device”, he explains.
Steeples was responding in part to a piece here on Mybusiness.net (“The long arm of the lawsuit”) that sought to expose how patent disputes and IPR wrangles place an unneeded and expensive layer of legal gloss on new technology developments. His position is clear: “it is as if the whole concept of entrepreneurialism is a sham, due to the patent system.”
