In Case You Missed It: Launch Links - Week of August 14, 2016
- 8.19.2016
Some interesting links we found across the web this week:
When
a Tech Patent is Neither
Founders
should always be thinking about how best to protect their intellectual
property, because a ’s ideas are often its most valuable assets. Registered copyrights (protecting fixed creative works) and trademarks
(protecting brand names) weaker rights than patents (protecting
inventions), and therefore patents are much harder to obtain. Patents on
software are even more unlikely to be granted, especially in light of a 2014
Supreme Court decision on the subject. Bloomberg has a nice
summary of the fallout from that decision—if you’re a software company, keep
an eye on this issue in years to come.
On the
EU’s Net Neutrality Law
We’ve mentioned the US debate
over net neutrality many times, but did you know there’s a parallel law across
the pond? If you’ve been following the EU “Privacy Shield” debate, you
probably won’t be shocked to hear that European net neutrality is a little less
favorable to telecom companies than our own.
The
Government Has Its Own Tech Startup, and It’s Fixing a Lot
Recently we’ve noticed an
increasing push to employ top tech talent in federal government initiatives,
particularly in the defense space. The latest such initiative to be
publicized, the US Digital Service, employs a small team of engineers and
project squeezing all kinds of efficiencies out of a sprawling
bureaucracy. And they even wear hoodies inside the Pentagon!
Use
Big Data to Create Value for Customers, Not Just Target Them
Big data analytics are all the
rage in marketing just about any kind of (and
especially in FinTech), but when will they
shift focus from pushing an immediate purchase to building lifetime customer
loyalty? Here’s a thinkpiece worth saving from the Harvard Business
Review.
An
Ecosystem Where Startups Help Other Startups
This New York Times profile
of a pair of Chicago-based founders who became fund
caught our eye for two reasons. First, if you’re not generating interest
with traditional VCs, don’t forget that successful fellow founders can be a
very strong substitute. And second, never forget to keep an eye on
markets outside of Silcon Valley and Silicon Alley. (Bonus link: Chattanooga’s just the latest smaller city to court the
crowd with incubators and coworking spaces galore. And, by the way, the
real estate developer building them is also a venture investor!)
Links compiled by Jared Brenner.
