Too Many Lawyers

Was there a sudden increase in the number lawyers during the 2000s?

These days it seems that lawyers have overrun the corporate world to the point where companies are spending more time suing each other, rather than competing via innovation. Copyright, patents, and intellectual property are the domain of lawyers, not entrepreneurs. Patent and copyright trolling is a business model that only lawyers would create.

It is curious that the only economy that is growing (perhaps even overheating) in these uncertain times, has very little of this lawyering going on. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

Lawyers Or Engineers

These days it seems that businesses spend more time in court fighting over "intellectual property" than they do creating innovative products. This would a great opportunity for small companies to fill the product gap but then they risk being sued too. No matter what anyone says, nothing will convince me that "intellectual property" promotes innovation. It is just a tool to suppress competition.

All of this makes me wonder: is it cheaper to sue or to create a new product? Who costs more: lawyers or engineers?

An Amiga Kills A Troll

This Groklaw story of how a demonstration of an Amiga helped to win a patent infringement suit against Redhat, will warm the hearts of all Amiga enthusiasts everywhere. The Amiga wasn't the only prior art in this case, but I wonder how many other software patents the Amiga might invalidate. This also serves a reminder of how flawed the concept of a software patent is. Any company that depends on them to protect it's core business, is taking a huge risk. Of course, the loser in this suit was just a patent troll, so nothing of value was lost.