Microsoft Backs Patent Promotion Group

Microsoft and others have founded Ideas Matter, a group intending to convince the public of the value of patents, copyrights and other intellectual property in daily life.

Patents can reward individuals and boost economies is the group’s message, and its launch meeting in Brussels on World IP Day, 26 April, heard from speakers  such as Trevor Baylis, the inventor of the clockwork radio, and Philippe Lacoste, whose grandfather invented the polo shirt. The big companies backing the initiative kept to the background, and the (ab)use of patents in corporate warfare and possible reforms to the patent system were mentioned in passing.

The system is not perfect

“I don’t want inventors being turned over like a turkey by big companies,” Trevor Baylis (pictured) said to TechWeekEurope. Baylis runs a site, Trevor Baylis Brands, intended to help small inventors with patent searches and advice. “I want to make sure the inventor has a patent and can get a return from their investment.”

When inventors are employed, it is normally their company which get revenue from their  patents and decides how they will be deployed against rivals. This state of affairs was recently challenged by Twitter, which announced an inventor-friendly agreement whereby inventors in its ranks would retain some control over how their ideas are used.

Microsoft – which has far  more patents than Twitter – has no intention of following suit, said Ron Zink, Microsoft’s chief operating officer for EU affairs (who has his name on two Microsoft-owned patents). “I wouldn’t expect we would change our stance,” Zink told TechWeekEurope. “When we hire people to come to Microsoft and create intellectual capital, they are crafting for the benefit of Microsoft and our customers, and the rights do revert to the corporation.”

Zink agreed that the patent system was not perfect, arguing that individuals and small companies should pay a lower rate – possibly zero – to apply for patents, and investment in patents should attract tax relief.

Members of Ideas Matter include the International Trademark Association (INTA), Microsoft, NBC-Universal, the Dutch Patent Office, Philips, SAP, Technicolor and PR firm Waggener Edstrom. Other firms supporting through the International Chamber of Commerce include tobacco firms BAT and Philip Morris, Chanel, Cisco Daimler, Diageo, Eli Lilly, Hewlett Packard, JTI, Lacoste, Nestlé, Nokia, Pfizer,Procter & Gamble, Unilever and Universal Music.

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