Get patents to get respect

With due respect to Rodney Dangerfield.

Steven on Eweek quotes Darl McBride on the analogy between software patent issue and the  nuclear MAD-based (mutually assured destruction) tacit rule.

If I stretch this analogy further then what this tells me is that countries like North Korea,  Pakistan, India, Israel among others must continue their nuclear arsenal build up if they have to get any reasonable respect from those who have pocket ful of these weapons.   Comparing these countries to open source startups is just plain stupid but since the analogy has already been made between the open source patents controversy with the MAD rule I might as well get some fun out of it.

Point is software patents are bad. But you need to have it if you want to get some Rodney Dangerfield type of respect. In the courtroom when two parties are going to clash with their lawyers you better have your hand in your pocket with your own bunch of 2mm Pinfire USPTO cartridges otherwise you are toast.

It makes legal sense to tweak that little cookie  to the left to get that patently obvious patent but go ahead anyways to get that. Its better to get some respect in this world !  Right ?

Wrong. This thing got to stop.  We don't need MAD type arrangement to get respect in this world or to throttle innovation.

Does this mean all big companies are going to treat startups the way Condi is treating North Korea? Probably. We are just waiting for some big proprietary software  company CEO to blame non-Linux OS component for the misssed quarterly numbers, then the next round of legal issues will gain momentum.  Call them post-SCO legal issues.