A Great Story about Patent Trolls or How to Make an Offer You Can't Refuse

The NY Times published a fantastic (and very troubling) piece, How a Typical Patent Battle Took an Unexpected Turn, about a start-up and its fight with a “patent troll” with some great twists.  I experienced a wide range of emotions in reading this article and the story will continue to evolve.  Here is the article.  Who are the winners (if any)?  Who are the losers (if any)?  I hope the "trolls" don't start colluding--protection anyone?  What do you think? 

Money for Nothing (?) and the IP for Free: Crowdfunding Science

Inside Higher Ed recently published an article about several entities with websites which allow crowdfunding for scientific research projects, most by academics, in Kickstarter style.  Here are a few: Petridish.org; Microryza.com; and Fundageek.com.   Do the funders obtain IP rights?  I suppose they could as an incentive for funding depending on the rules of the entity.  Although travelling with a researcher to Peru may be more fun!

Fundageek.com is thoughtful about protecting the IP of the submitters of research.  Here is a link to their IP site and they have a “special IP guidelines document” by Daniel L. Dawes.   Clearly, employers of researchers will want to know if they have researchers submitting proposals to these types of sites.

The Inside Higher Ed article also highlights the launch of the University of Virginia’s own crowdfunding site—great idea!  Here is the site.  And, they’ve already started getting funding!  Know of any other similar sites?