Friday, November 27, 2009

When the lion roars : hiding under the covers

I have often been struck by the bullishness of some companies touting their IP to all and sundry, as if it were some divinity's gift to the world, and with the sole intention of creating a kneejerk reaction in a subset of the population, be it CEOs, VCs, or even just the generally uninformed and irrational public. Of course, it is easy for the lawyers to look down from their lofty perch and tell everyone not to worry (or precisely the opposite, depending on the circumstances), but somehow this doesn't always have the desired effect.

My thoughts on the matter are twofold : (1) that we, as a whole, are considered as untrustworthy as a politician and thus our opinion on the matter is to be taken with a very large pinch of salt, and (2) that we are not very good at showing our true convictions with regard to the situation in hand, and thus fail to convince our clients that they are really getting counselled. The latter is of course akin to us hiding under the covers when the lion roars, so to speak, yet we do so constantly, keeping our fallout umbrella handily up our pleading gown sleeves in case the euphemistically termed dung is spread all about and we get, dare I say it, splattered.

Of course, we all like to be right, but inevitably in an IP dispute, someone will be wrong to a certain extent, either implicitly or directly, and ultimately, in a sane world, we would have the courage of our convictions, and roar back, or at least miaow convincingly.

Now, where did I put my disclaimers ? :-p

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