Reddit mentions of Getting Naked: A Business Fable About Shedding The Three Fears That Sabotage Client Loyalty

> Have you dealt much with software patents? While prior art is a legitimate attack on the process it's a fairly shaky ground if it's your only real argument because it's an amorphous term. I mean, if the prior art covers concepts A, B, C, and D, but this new solution covers A, C, D, and E, then prior art alone isn't going to be enough to null it.

1. If you are honestly trying to argue that software patents like this are "sound" then obviously dont work anywhere near the field of IP.
   
   
2. Software prior arts are INCREDIBLY difficult to research for a startup. To do it thoroughly you are honestly talking about paging through tens of thousands of peer reviewed papers to ensure that your slight innovation and system with your GPS service delivery has NEVER been mentioned be other developers. There is registering a patent on a budget and there is spending the hundreds of thousands that is actually required to do it properly.
   
   
3. Of course there are some cases in software patents are much more straight forward, where there is clear innovation in play. The organisation existing prior arts (software systems) in a way that is fit-for-purpose for a business is much harder, and importantly, VERY expensive. For instance... swipe left on a phone device... pretty straight forward... having the GPS service embedded in delivery cars in a specific way not done before, not so clear.
   
   
4. Having some family that work in Universities, (who issues tens of thousands of patents per annum), the advice I've been given is its much easier to patent a business system than software itself... largely due to the ability to skin a problem in multiple ways. Whereas, when you patent processes and systems, it can be easier to establish a barrier for competitor entry because the competitor can never offer what your whole system promises.
   
   Again though, there is a difference between claiming innovative steps for a new technology.. and trying to claim a use case for a GPS solution for the delivery business. One is more difficult to research/costly by orders of magnitude than the other.
   
   A complete hypothetical, imagine the system involves you have the GPS delivery, and then at the end there is a quick survey on how fast it was and a guarantee for delivery on time or something free. Lets assume this has never been mentioned before, and I patent it with those two steps on the end, possibly as a business system instead.
   
   So, this might help you establish a monopoly on the best possible delivery service, because only your business system is able to offer this survey and the guarantee, but that doesnt stop dominos from just copying the baseline generic software patent without the survey and guarantee.
   
   I've read over the patent and if you honestly think this patent cant be slightly modified and then redone in what is in the field of prior art you have no idea what you are talking about. If you wanted to put money on this I bet I could find dozens of similar patents/systems and alternative ways to skin the problem that Dominos could use. It wouldnt be identical, but it would be good enough.
   
   Dominos are pieces of shit because they likely manipulated and lied to these guys from the start at the very least they could have ceased the relationship like gentlemen. But... these guys at Precision probably needed to be more realistic about their patent on the global scale in terms of being able to impose a monopoly on the industry.
   
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   > You can get fucked right there
   
   > I own a consultancy that operates out of Sydney and Canberra and there is literally no way on this green earth I'd ever risk my entire company based off of a handshake agreement. When I need to outlay significant capital to secure hires and/or equipment that I can't use elsewhere there needs to be a contract signed.
   
   Where did i say to risk everything off handshakes. I was talking about the fact that the trade contract they had in place would likely never be agreed in a manner that was strong enough to obfuscate them potentially going with another party one day.
   
   Of course you need retail agreements with people you do business. I outright said that several times which you blatantly ignored. The primary reason you need this is to protect your own liabilities as a service provider.
   
   I'm just saying, if Australia Post tried to tell people they were selling a delivery service to, "you cant use any other delivery service in the future if you go with us", the client will say "no thanks, we wont do business with you".
   
   Dominos are pieces of shit, i'm not defending them here. But where are all the other customers using Precisions GPS tracking solution? It seems like if they had somehow established themselves as a market leader, offering a quality and well priced solution in the market, Dominos never would have gone with a competitor instead. Perhaps Precision priced wrong because they thought they could due to having a patent?
   
   None of this speculation matters much. I only objected to one thing, which was people shitting on the handshake deal. If you work at a massive corp, I can understand thinking that the contracts have to cover every aspect. But for Aussie startups, my opinion is that you will never be able to cover every aspect in a contract, and to retain clients you need demonstrate value.
   
   I got a good book last year on this very topic, "Getting Naked". http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Naked-Business-Shedding-Sabotage/dp/0787976393
   
   In summary, IMO, the fact the handshake was in play had nothing to do with why they got ripped off in this particular case. Its the fact that Dominos lawyers think their patent isnt worth shit. Whatever contract you are imagining that they could have thrown out to lock Dominos in from day 0 is something Dominos never would have signed... thats all i'm saying.
   
   Also, I would bet my business that GPS tracking systems were already in play in the US when these guys started it, its just their particular method involving displays etc is the particular version these guys tried to claim for themselves.

Blue Ocean Strategy and Getting Naked:A Business Fable

Can't recommend this book enough: Getting Naked