Also, today I had a chance to meet with Steve Bourque, owner of Bourque Data Systems

(more photos here)

Bourque Data Systems is the 37signals of the railroad industry. They have a suite of software solutions to manage every aspect of the transportation of goods by rail (and truck, and barge). He’s also from The Woodlands, my home town. It’s funny that I meet all these interesting people from the Woodlands now that I don’t live there anymore.

We also talked a little about the role of software patents. My opinion falls towards the side of Brad Feld (Abolish Software Patents). As part of winning the Ideas Challenge, I was offered the services of a patent attorney. Of course I am going through the motions – free patent! – if I actually do get the patent I’m considering releasing it immediately into the public domain. Why? What good is a patent to me; it gives the privilege to engage in a multi-million dollar lawsuit if someone else infringes on it. I don’t have that kind of money, so I’m not going to be able to defend it anyway. I’ll get much more value out of the good press from releasing my patent to the public than I ever would holding onto it.

I never want to be in a software business where I have to hide behind a patent to keep competitors from taking customers. I want my product to speak for itself – I took the obvious technology (which almost all software is) and built the best service. Microsoft is making a lot of noise about how all these open-source projects infringe on their patents. If Microsoft were smart, they’d release their patents into public domain (not like they’ll get any money suing open-source projects) in return for good press and hopefully start a movement where companies are encouraged to do so. Until we can stop the USPTO from giving software patents, software companies should show their support by releasing their patents.