Week in Review: Patent Lawsuits Impact Start-ups, Dreamforce Shows Off Social and Mobile

Posted by | September 21, 2012

The patent fights that have erupted this year—Apple versus Samsung, Yahoo versus Facebook—aren’t limited to big, established companies. A recent Reuters report draws attention to the start-ups that suffer as a result of patent lawsuits, some of which are filed by “patent trolls”—entities that don’t make a product, but nevertheless guard a portfolio of patents. For many startups, fighting such cases against a patent troll is a financial burden they can’t afford, leaving the option of licensing fees that typically run from $100,000 to $750,000, but can sometimes be in the millions of dollars.

Despite any constraints that IP might impose on innovation, plenty of new technologies were front and center this week at Dreamforce 2012, which drew 90,000 participants to San Francisco for 750 sessions on social and mobile cloud technologies. Several of our partner companies were in attendance, including Hoopla.net, which maintained a strong social media presence at the conference. ThingWorx and NovaSom also attended, and NovaSom CIO Carl Hoburg presented a session titled “Empowering Patients: The Most Vital Step in Transforming Healthcare.” He spoke about mobile health applications, collaborative care communities, social media apps, and sites that keep patients engaged in improving their health.

Beyond Dreamforce, here’s what our partner companies have been up to recently:

To read more of our Week in Review series, please use the following feed: www.safeguard.com/WeekInReview. Have a good weekend!

 

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