A number of companies in the USV portfolio are being sued over patents (e.g., Twitter). For a startup, such a suit is a huge distraction and potentially a major drain on financial resources. Even for large companies such as Microsoft, patent law suits are a real pain to deal with (see Brad Feld’s post on the latest involving XML). Some folks have suggested doing away with software patents altogether as a way of addressing this problem. That strikes me as too dramatic a solution as I don’t bel...

A number of companies in the USV portfolio are being sued over patents (e.g., Twitter). For a startup, such a suit is a huge distraction and potentially a major drain on financial resources. Even for large companies such as Microsoft, patent law suits are a real pain to deal with (see Brad Feld’s post on the latest involving XML). Some folks have suggested doing away with software patents altogether as a way of addressing this problem. That strikes me as too dramatic a solution as I don’t bel...