Alec Saunders SquawkBox

Well, in the EU, it’s worth about 3 million euros.  Axel Horn’s posting from November 16th is a summary of the high points of an EU Commission study on patents.  The median value for patents is around 300,000 euros, but a few very valuable patents skew the average much higher. The commission also argues for a more uniform patent regime across all EU member states.

I wonder what a patent is worth in North America, on average?  And given this kind of information, what’s the right amount to pay for a patent license?

User generated content as journalism has been one of those persistent stories in the media over the last year.  With the meteoric rise of blogs, podcasting, and video blogging, it seems that publishing has truly become the province of every person.  In Creative Video Blogging and the new “Instant Journalism”, Andy Abramson offers some thoughts on how the phenomenon of on-the-spot reporting will change CES.  He writes:

I’m expecting CES to be a revitalized news event, and at the same time, an event where the unknown can become known, not only from the usual sources, but from new and unexpected places. It’s the “new instant journalists,” even those without press passes, who will be wandering the halls at CES that will be finding products and stories that makes the show interesting.

…

Bloggers are now as important to the established companies as the mainstream media have always been, not just to the new and emerging companies with something new to show. As a matter of fact if you have to pick between the analyst, media or blogger this week, unfortunately the analyst drops to third in importance if you’ve got something to tell and sell.

Blogging, video blogging, and podcasting are redefining how news and information is received. Personally, I don’t watch the news anymore, and my morning paper is an afterthought for consumption after reading my diet of RSS feeds, and blogs. The media conglomerate that used to dish up my information, is now relegated to just one source in my RSS reader.  As Andy says “A new journalism is upon us and we are all apart of it.”

As the ultimate gadget-fest, it makes a ton of sense that CES should be the show first revolutionized by this new journalism.