Interesting NYT Patent Article

The New York Times recently published an article on Geoff Goodfellow who invented wireless email well before Thomas Campana patented it. The patent that Mr. Campana wrote won NTP a $612.5M settlement from RIM, the makers of Blackberry. The story clearly demonstrates that while the patent system maybe flawed, participating in it is better than ignoring it. Nonetheless, I give Mr. Goodfellow kudos for having such a good attitude about the situation.

In case you missed it, the blogsphere has been buzzing with commentary questioning the value of patents:

1. Greg Blonder kicked it off by writing "Cutting through the Patent Thicket"
2. Paul Graham asks "Are Software Patents Evil?"
3. Brad Feld urges us to "Abolish Software Patents"
4. Fred Wilson wrote "Patently Absurd"
5. Lastly, I suggest several non-patent barriers to entry here