Based on current feedback, I’d say paying a lawyer to talk about software patents at this point would be like setting money on fire.
– Ryan Gordon
I’ve also found this to be true
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Category Archives: Startup
And now for something completely geeky
Now that my exams are over, I’ve gotten back to working towards launching my little startup. During the second half of my semester I couldn’t find time or energy for it, but I did occasionally give it some thinking time, some of which has borne fruit.
Beware, Troppo readers; here be nerds.
Payment woes continued
My startup dot-com project continues to plod along in the gap between university labs, assignments, tests and other studious miscellanea.
Today I spent some time getting down to the nuts and holts of payment systems.
I’ve done some work on this before, of course. Westpac knocked me back for their ordinary merchant account. I began to look further into third-party payment services. I have concluded that Australia is a terrible country for entrepreneurs who aren’t doing something ordinary.
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Rejection!
It’s like my highschool love life all over again!
Well not really.
As some of you know, I’ve been working in ‘stealth mode’ on a dot-com project for a few months now. A week ago I applied to Westpac for merchant facilities — ie the ability to charge Visa and Mastercard — today they said it had been knocked back.
I was beginning to suspect that they would knock me back when my case manager at Westpac, Gina, began to quiz me closely about everything I owned. Did I own a computer? Worth how much? Books? How long at my previous job? Any cars? Insured? etc etc.
She was trying her level best to do me a favour by beefing up my resume as a director, because there’s not much else to hang a hat on. The business was incorporated a few weeks ago and has yet to turn a dime because it relies on credit cards to do so. I own, approximately, diddly and squat. My parents reckon it reminds them of the old days (and the new days, perhaps) when you practically had to beg bank managers for a loan.
I suspect I could improve my chances by bringing in a director or two with really impressive resumes and assets. But I’m open to other suggestions. I know that some Troppodillians are banking types. What can I do to improve my odds when I apply again?
Patents are really expensive
I rang a patent lawyer today to discuss my upcoming business, to check whether any part of what I’m doing is patentable. There’s a lot of existing systems and papers that describe part of what I’m doing, but not all.
In any case, he told me that if I decide to pursue and Australian patent, I could expect to spend around $3000, and for an international patent, at least another $10,000. Both with no guarantee of success of course.
It makes me wonder. The popular image of patents is a canny fellow thinking up a clever doodad in his garage. But in practice it doesn’t work that way — the vast majority are lodged by large corporations. In software they are generally lodged defensively, creating a situation of mutually-assured patent wars if one big firm decides to sue another big firm. Then the little guy loses out because he doesn’t have any patents to swap.
So a question for the lawyers and economists: would it be worth changing the patent system so that only individuals could file in their own name?
MYOB: So Far, Underwhelming
I’ve started my first ‘proper’ business — incorporation and all — and my accountant told me that I should get MYOB or QuickBooks. So far MYOB has not impressed.
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