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To Patent or Not To Patent That Is the Question

A few months ago we took the decision not to patent one of the features of our technology.  We were concerned about the cost of doing so and the nature of software patents in general.  We haven't launched that particular feature set yet so the window isn't, in theory, closed.

Over the last few weeks we've had cause to reconsider this due to the current crop of Patent insanity, which has led me to start thinking along, if you can't beat 'em, join them 'em lines.

I am extremely concerned about what I'm seeing in terms of what is being granted as patents at the moment because I think it's calling into question what a software patent is and actually should be.   There's two areas here.  There's the stuff that Apple and Nokia are fighting over, which involves quite a lot of hard arsed technical radio and phone stuff that, frankly, Apple are screwed over.  If Qualcomm, a company whose legal department is actually a profitable P&L, couldn't beat Nokia at this game, I suspect that Apple might find themselves feeling like Imperial Japan post-Pearl Harbour.

The second area is Apple's next counter punch which is the bucket of infringements they've slapped HTC with.  This is the area, along with Facebook's "news feed" patent that leave me feeling that things have got silly.  

Firstly, let me caveat the rest of this comment with the issue that I'm not a lawyer and nor do I play one on TV.  This is just my opinion based on the last decade spent in the mobile industry and dealing directly with IP related issues with some of the players.  

A lot of the items that Apple has hit HTC with are actually features of software that HTC have licensed.  I'm not sure about Google's license, I've not read it closely enough.  However, I have read the WinMo license and there's a fair degree of protection against patent infringement in there.  Apple must be aware of this so HTC is a proxy in a war with MS and Google.  While most companies might find this uncomfortable, especially small ones, I think Apple is underestimating HTC.  They're a self made Taiwanese OEM - the first of the ODMs to really make a transition to OEMhood.  They're also from a nation that's spent 60 years facing off against a nuclear capable superpower.  HTC are a not exactly a push over to deal with - believe me, you should try selling to them.

So, have HTC infringed anything by using software that's been licensed to them?  And do UI features or presentation issues (like slide/gesture to unlock) represent an actual invention?

Which brings me back to the News Feed and a patent that scares the hell out of me - is this actually something you can defend?

Anyway - I've slowly been coming around to deciding that yes, we probably should patent the next feature we've been working on because we actually think it's novel and new.  Of course, should Apple/Nokia/MS/Qualcomm/Facebook or WHOEVER decide that its something they already did or want to do, we're probably screwed anyway...

And that kind of impact on business and innovation is exactly what I thought patents were invented to prevent.

Back in the saddle...

Mobile World Congress was it's usual mad-house, spoiled slightly by the inclemant temperatures this time around.  Freezing rain, cold winds and grey skies aren't a typical feature of Barcelona at this time of year and it was a little disappointing.

Still, we had an excellent show and gained lots of good traction.  There's also a lot going on at the moment and we've some exciting new product annoucements we'll be making shortly along with, we hope, a couple of new customer annoucements.

I'm also working on some other mobile related Blog posts which fit into some subjects that are on all our minds at the moment.  The first one will be some thoughts on what the Facebook and Apple patent annoucements and spats are about. 

Anyway, it seems to be quite spinglike here in Seattle so we'll continue to get the website updated and our new range of services in place while we can enjoy the weather.

Moving onwards and upwards...

So, after a fairly significant pause, we've started showing more details about what it is we're actually doing.  In addition to the consumer news reader app, we've been busy through the summer building a number of working demos of the technology in a variety of spaces.  These have been driven partly by customer demands and also by topics that are of interest to us. 

An example of the later is the Event/Convention Management demo we now have.  I go to a fair number of events and I'll be honest, configuring the information that I want to have with me at the event is an absolute pig.  I want to know what items I'm going to, what the program actually is, what is going on in terms of press released and news feeds, where I should eat and a dozen other items.

That's where ViaFo comes in.  Using our off-the-shelf components we can rapidly build a convention access system that interacts with the event CMS and gives the event managers opportunities for advertising and other revenue generation.  We can pre-integrate a Twitter and News service client that will event allow for Tweeting with pre-embedded #tags and other similar services.  All of this with a simple web interface to drive the mobile client.

Additionally we've built demos for the healthcare industry, travel, logistics and CRM fields.

There will be a more professional look and feel for the website coming in the next couple of weeks and we're getting ready for the formal launch of the News Reader App.

Contact me if you want Beta access, we're still testing.

New Features Coming

We've been rushing to add new backend features into the web-app, and also into the client.  The next version will be able to handle Podcast RSS with the options of delivering the podcast to your PC to save or listen to or download them to a WinMo device via the browser.

Fingers crossed with a following wind we'll be releasing the fully public client soon.

We're also making great strides with the enterprise version ready for our first customer launches.

Rushing to get the Public Launch Ready

Getting a product finished can be a right royal pain in the behind.  No matter how much fun the process is, it is constantly shocking me the number of things we keep finding that have slipped through the net.

We're getting close to the launch version for Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Smartphone of the public client, and, by extension the same product for the enterprise market.

Once that's complete we're going to be turning our attention to Android.

It's great to be in the final stretch but I'm sorry at how long this is taking over the original plan.  For those that have signed up for the beta program.  We are going to be getting to you shortly!

Taking it on the road

Off travelling next week while we still focus on getting the Beta ready for the full public launch.  There's some slight changes in strategy we've come up with along the way, but that's the cool thing about a Start Up - it's a living, dynamic thing and you need to keep changing things while you go.

We're getting 2 enterprise demos ready for customers for delivery next week and we've got another prospect in the pipeline now. 

Anyway, back to working on the demos, I'm currently exercising long dormant coding muscles and I think I need another gallon of coffee.

Website Changes

Some people following the site have noticed we've taken down quite a few pages including some screenshots of the web and mobile client solution.

There are 2 reasons for this.

Firstly, we're in the middle of a significant overhaul of both the site and the ViaFo solution moving from a alpha/beta release to the formal beta version for indviduals and enterprises.  There's a significant improvement in performance and functionality and we want to make sure that we hit the ground with a big splash for that.

Second, we're thinking of entering at least one tech launch contest which requires we don't show our individual/consumer version to the public until the autumn (Fall for some of you).

If you are interested in seeing some examples and product demo, don't hesitate to contact me or the company for a demo and screenshots under NDA.

ViaFo Update

Getting a new solution to market is always an interesting experience and at the moment we're in the middle of a significant number of core engineering tasks and have started the work on our non-Windows Mobile clients.

So, I'm looking at a number of interesting options for both funding and our public beta launch.  It's not clear at the moment if we're going to do that in July or wait until the autumn - there's a significant strategy decision we have to take, so keep watching.

We can be followed on Twitter (ViaFoCEO) or you can follow my personal Twitter (daveon) where I discuss a lot of mobile and wireless issues.