Ariba File Patent Infringement Suit Against Emptoris
At the end of a longer post taking to task his competitor for a copyright violation, Paul Martyn has the scoop on his blog that Ariba has filed a patent infringement suit against Emptoris. Currently, I'm sitting in on a main stage keynote at Sapphire now -- and a futuristic procurement SOA use case is even part of it ... more on this later!! -- but when I am back in the office later this week, I'll dig into this patent case. In the meantime, I'm sure that the analysts will have something to say about it as well.
My first reaction is that since Emptoris has a rich patent portfolio -- at least from what I hear -- I doubt this saga will end quickly. And it's certain to cause at least some changes to the time line of Emptoris' rumored IPO. In general, I frown on vendor patent litigation, as I believe it stifles innovation. And just as ePlus learned, you can convince a jury of your less intelligent peers -- with no engineering or software background -- of virtually anything.
- Jason Busch
My first reaction is that since Emptoris has a rich patent portfolio -- at least from what I hear -- I doubt this saga will end quickly. And it's certain to cause at least some changes to the time line of Emptoris' rumored IPO. In general, I frown on vendor patent litigation, as I believe it stifles innovation. And just as ePlus learned, you can convince a jury of your less intelligent peers -- with no engineering or software background -- of virtually anything.
- Jason Busch
The end result of the blizzard of software and process patents that have been granted over the last ten years is that innovation is slowly grinding to a halt. The enormous minefield that is being created can't be navigated by anyone, I don't care who they are. The only companies left standing will be those who have collected a large enough patent portfolio to defend themselves with counterclaims.
I sincerely hope Emptoris prevails. I could hope for a more deserving champion, certainly, but by attacking Emptoris through the courts Ariba has launched an anticompetitive assault on everyone. I've just read the Freemarkets patents, and they're obvious to a village idiot. Not that it matters, of course, since apparently you can patent "1-click ordering."
God help us all.
I think what Jason is trying to point out is that once everything we have now is patented, including all the basic user interface functions and basic capabilities we have come to expect in office, e-Sourcing, e-Procurement, e-mail, Internet, etc. applications, it will be hard to build anything new since it will be impossible to do so without incorporating and building on basic elements, that are patented, even though the patents contain elements that are "obvious to anyone", were most likely thought of and already implemented by someone in an academic environment or (abandoned) (open source) project, and use mathematical algorithms as their foundation (which are not supposed to be patentable, but somehow pass muster once translated into word or "process" representations).
Software patents are stupid, Europeans are smart, and it would be nice if Americans caught on. For a longer rant, see my post "And the Software Patent Pirates will Plunder Away ... ", which references a couple of other good posts by other bloggers.
http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/2006/08/10/and-...
Horrified:
I don't see this as an anti-competitive assault on everyone. I agree with Jason, and see it as an assault on Emptoris in particular. Like everyone else, they're tied of Emptoris' bully tactics, tired of Emptoris following a strategic plan of aggressively targeting all of their marquis customers, and particularly tired of Emptoris rubbing their victories in everyone's faces. I'll change my tune if they quickly follow up with another lawsuit against a different company, but I think it's just an "Emptoris, you've gone too far" over-reaction to a company that might pose a serious threat to their business.
What Michael said. It's not a question of "all the software has been written." It's a question of "all the tools have disappeared from the tool chest." For example, someone recently patented the linked list, a data structure that is used in practically every piece of software ever written. That particular patent won't stand, but it's impossible to fight every single stupid patent that's granted, especially obscure process patents like the Freemarkets patents -- patents that nobody knows about until some patent troll emerges from under a bridge grasping them in his greasy fingers.
Michael:
Where does it stop? What happens when (say) Procuri gets too big for its britches, and provokes a "you've gone too far" reaction from Ariba? Do all the e-procurement vendors have to start walking on eggs now? "Ooo, be careful, don't annoy Ariba!" That'll be just great for our space, won't it.
Emptoris can't seem to write a press release that isn't dripping with self-adulation, but just because you find them tiresome, that doesn't mean you should ignore a rival who is over in the corner busily opening Pandora's box and directly threatening everyone in the space. Are you looking forward to a world with no RFx options except Ariba? Not me!
Note, by the way, that Ariba filed in Marshall Texas, everyone's favorite venue for B.S. patent lawsuits.
As you can tell, I leave the software to Jason. I'll stick to my knitting. I guess I was thinking about all of the not-yet-invented and/or niche sourcing applications which don't necessarily need to lay on top of the "traditional" e-sourcing functionality.
Furthermore, what you need to be looking at first and foremost is ROI. Does the solution address your needs? Will it provide value? Even after you consider all of the costs of the solution?
These companies like their traditional behind-the-firewall solutions. Such solutions have license costs. Installation costs. Maintenance costs. Upgrade costs. Training costs. Hardware costs. Internal & External Support Costs. Etc.
Full suite installations - which is what you often need to maximize value - can easily run you in the seven figures a year. I'm not saying that's too much, because it depends on your situation. If you're spending 9 figures a year and you're confident it will save you 10% or 8 figures a year, then that's almost 10x ROI and definitely worth consideration. But if you're only an 8 figure company and you can only put 7 figures through the system ... then you're not saving any more than you're paying for the system and your ROI is 0 and you need to be looking at other solutions.
Select the best solution for you and go with it. Chances are you'll lose more if you try and second guess the market. That's what stock traders do, and look at what happened to most of them recently ...
I am also in the evaluation stage of these two organisations and until now was unaware of this pending legal issue. I have two questions:
1- is anyone aware of further developments in the case?
2- Both Ariba and Emptoris "claim" to be the #1 in this space. I am interested to hear the thoughts / comments of others on this? Who really is perceived by industry as the # 1 player in e-sourcing applications and services?
Regarding application selection and who is the best, you can't go wrong with either. Decide what matters most to your organization. Happy to discuss if you'd like (jbusch (at) spendmatters (dot) . com) and trade thoughts.