"It's a Huge Case for the Patent-Law Community." On One Side: Google, Facebook, Intuit.  On the Other? IBM. "Because the patents are often unclear, there's no way to know whether an infringement claim by a competitor or a troll is legitimate until you've spent $8 million in litigation fees," said Mr. Schruers Ashby Jones in the Wall Street Journal  reports this morning that a federal appeals court in Washin ...

Six Out of 10 Small-Business Owners Buy Business Benefits of Social Media; 41% Prefer LinkedIn; Only 3% Vouch for Twitter  Not that that stopped Twitter from getting a $9B valuation this last week.   Emily Maltby and Shira Ovide report that the Wall Street Journal and Vistage International recently surveyed 835 small business owners.  Here are the results. ...

Investors Cool on Tech A survey of tech firms' valuations shows many companies are challenged.    Here's detail from various reporters: ...

The Wall Street Journal's Small Business Blog featured recently a guest column by Antone Johnson on the use, misuse, and misvaluation of intellectual property.  It's probably of interest to valuators and financial consultants who are working with small business owners to value and growth their businesses.   Venture capitalists, angel investors and start-up lawyers these days tend to be obsessed with "intell ...

Apple's 'bogus' patents will 'strangle' Android: Google So reports Asher Moses this month in The Advertiser: Google's chief legal officer has launched a blistering attack on competitors, including Apple, for attempting to stifle innovation by using "bogus patents" to target Google's Android partners including Samsung. David Drummond, who is also Google's senior vice-president, wrote in an explosive blog pos ...