Nathan Myhrvold Provides D10 with Some Comic Relief

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May 302012
 

Coming off the heels of Tim Cook’s proclamation that patent litigation is “a pain in the ass”, D10 hosted a person who, in the eyes of just about everyone, is the actual pain that Cook feels in his ass. Nathan Myhrvold, formerly Microsoft’s CTO, now runs an outfit called Intellectual Ventures. Their business model is simple: buy up as many patents as possible and use them to shake down companies for licensing fees. Contrary to the public’s opinion about what IV does, this is not racketeering. Just ask Myhrvold:

We like to say invention capital. Our goal is to invest in invention. We file patents ourselves on our own inventions or those that partner with us. We also have a business like private equity, where we take a controlling interest in existing patent portfolios — from universities, from all over the place.

Lifted directly from the D10 transcript

Except that the ratio of IV-generated patents to bought-out-and-weaponized patents is in the neighborhood of 30-1. But don’t let the obvious predatory nature of Myhrvold’s business be the only criterium upon which you judge. He’s also quite the humanitarian.  From the (highly recommended) NPR profile of Myhrvold and IV:

IV says it has invented a nuclear technology that’s safer and greener than existing technologies. A cooler that can keep vaccines cold for months without electricity. And the world’s most high-tech mosquito zapper.

So despite running a business that models itself after a Mafia protection scheme, beneath that slimy exterior beats a heart of pure gold.

But the lab is a tiny fraction of what IV does. The company has received about 1,000 patents on stuff it’s come up with at the lab; it’s purchased roughly 30,000 patents from other people. In fact, nothing that’s come out of this lab — not the mosquito zapper, not the nuclear technology — has made it into commercial use.

Oops. I’m sure the humanitarian efforts are totally not a smokescreen for a scummy business model and will yield a solution to global warming and malaria any day now.

Father Time did a pretty admirable job trying to rattle Myhrvold, but when you’ve been at this game as long as he has, you’ve got your “totally misunderstood” lines down pat. Mossberg laid down a line that sent his stock soaring in my eyes: ”You just buy up patents and then you sue people, and I don’t understand how that helps innovation and creativity in the world.” Myhrvold quipped “Mostly, we license patents; we don’t mostly sue people.” So I assume the patents IV has acquired that it has yet to monetize are held for posterity. Mostly.

Engadget has some good coverage of the Mummer’s Farce here. I have to assume Myhrvold’s insistence on speaking publicly stems from an inherent masochism – or prolonged exposure to Ballmer – because I don’t think there’s an intelligent person on the planet who buys this guy’s schtick anymore.

 Posted by at 4:55 pm

Tim Cook at D10: Blogger Perspective #12,003

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May 302012
 

Like the rest of the technoverse, I followed the D10 kick-off with Tim Cook and took away my own impressions. I can’t claim any of them are novel, because my RSS feed from 10pm on was filled with tea-reading from the punditry, but I’m posting them on a “FWIW” basis:

  • 10 and 2 – you can’t get a real sense of Cook’s demeanor as he was getting grilled by Father Time and Kara Swisher from any Live Feed of the event, but if you take a look at the 17-minute synopsis clip posted on All Things Digital, you got to see the same Tim Cook that you saw at any of Apple’s recent media events: a picture of poise. Leg crossed, thoughtful and concise in his responses and dead-set on not revealing anything to the hosts, (despite being prodded constantly) he wasn’t the animated, anecdotal presence that Steve Jobs was, but that’s who he is (as Cook himself said). He laughed when Ping was mentioned, which I thought demonstrated a level of self-deprecation and the accessibility noted by many observers. I’d give him an 8 if this wasn’t his first major appearance that wasn’t Apple-programmed. For a newbie, I’d say he hit it out of the park.
  • Apple won’t be manufacturing iPads in the U.S. – Cook gave a very diplomatic answer to the question of if/when Apple would move its manufacturing stateside. I don’t know where Mossberg got his information that there was some kind of manufacturing resurgence in this country, but it’s not happening. Listen to the part where Cook describes not being able to fill the venue with this country’s tap-and-die specialists, let alone the entire cities teeming with this skill in China. By mentioning that parts of Apple’s production are happening here (chip and glass manufacturing), he offered the carrot that made his answer palatable.
  • The iTV did not become any more of a certainty - I’m fully aware that this conforms to my personal worldview that Apple shouldn’t make a television, but I didn’t get any sense that it was more likely having heard Cook’s/Apple’s answers regarding Apple and television. Cook even made a point of saying how much more popular the AppleTV was this year (2.7 million have sold this year alone vs. 3 million total last year). If anything, Cook highlighting the AppleTV’s success lowered the bass on the drumbeat of eventuality that’s being pounded out by the tech press over the iTV. I know: I’m biased.
  • Patents are a pain in the ass – In what I thought was one of Cook’s finer incendiaries, he called out companies that respond to Apple’s patent suits with standards-essential patents, making the point that Apple also owns several, but refuses to use them. It was a nice little jab at Google and Samsung, who are currently employing the practice, unfortunately with some success. He also didn’t concede settlement, stating that the company won’t tolerate being “the developer for the world.”
  • Facebook and Apple will become closer in the future – First: duh. Second, keeping in mind the laugher Cook had when Ping was mentioned, I don’t think Apple will try to enter “the social” in any meaningful way on its own again. The no-brainer partnerships with the Facebooks and Twitters are where Apple will focus, which is exactly how it should be.
  • Fasten your seat belts -  Cook was visibly most effusive when he was talking about what Apple had in the pipeline, so expect Cook’s first full year as Apple’s CEO to be a barnburner. WWDC should give us a taste. I can hardly wait.
 Posted by at 3:23 pm

A Brief Word Regarding Gizmodo’s Continued Lack of Class

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May 302012
 

I’m guessing we all saw it, given that we’re all tuned in to most things Apple. I won’t link to it, because Gizmodo is the tech site equivalent of a Love Canal sturgeon. It’s penned by Douchebag’s Row Member Jesus Diaz, as if you needed any other reason not to seek it out.

The piece in question lists 10 things that would have irked Steve Jobs if he was alive today. I’m not saying you shouldn’t write about Apple’s challenges, but there’s a way of doing it that doesn’t make you look like a piece of shit – which Diaz is, without question. I won’t go into the list, which, true to the form of the author’s body of work, is filled with poorly-written half-truths. What I will do is show you the header graphic.

Stay classy, Gizmodo

I’d recommend that Jesus Diaz lose his job, but that recommendation could apply to any one of at least a dozen pieces he’s written. It also assumes that the scumbag Gawker network produces anything that isn’t a stone’s throw away from this afterbirth. In my fantasy life, I dream of the day that Gizmodo gets tired of having to ban a third of the commenters following anything Diaz writes and he’ll be be kicked to the curb. Maybe then Gizmodo will assume some level of decency in its reporting of tech news. But we all know that pieces like this fit exactly into the niche Gizmodo has built for itself. It’s too bad there’s such a large market for them.

 Posted by at 11:10 am  Tagged with:
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