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European startups and US software patents: Threat or Opportunity?

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Re: European startups and US software patents: Threat or Opportunity?

#21

Post by quesera »

Chris_Newton wrote: post #16
quesera wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you're waiting for someone to ask... How do you define "global"?

I suppose I’d tend to describe a business operating on several continents as “global”, while I’d probably describe a business operating in a few countries within Europe as “European”. I haven’t really thought about where any firm dividing line would fall, and I’m not sure there’s any benefit to having one. I just took exception to the implication that those of us running businesses in Europe were somehow invalid on a…

Not invalid. It's a label, for convenience. There is no membership list, except that created by magazines. Americans call the baseball championship the World Series, and people complain occasionally. People also complain that Americans call themselves Americans. People complain a lot.

But I think it depends on your market. If you are selling a product or service that is relevant in the US, but you are not selling them in the US, you are ignoring a huge market and you would at least get an asterisk.

More importantly, if you're a global business but not addressing the US market, you're leaving a huge hole for someone else to fill, and global corps spend a lot of energy trying not to do that.

Re: European startups and US software patents: Threat or Opportunity?

#22

Post by Chris_Newton »

danmaz74 wrote: post #19
Chris_Newton wrote: post #13

[T]o become a global player in software, success in Europe is not enough: You need to be validated in the US. Why? Sure, the US is a big place, so if you’re making general purpose software aimed at an English-speaking consumer market then you’d probably want to sell there. On the other hand, in the Internet age, the US is still only one potential market, and depending on your niche other markets might be far larger.…

OP here. My point is that today in software - especially consumer software - the USA is the reference market, the one the whole world looks up to to understand the most current trends. Do you think that, for a Chinese, hearing that software X is the most successful in the USA is the same as hearing that it is the most successful in the EU? I don't think so (whatever I could like to think).

My point is that today in software - especially consumer software - the USA is the reference market, the one the whole world looks up to to understand the most current trends.

And my point is that I don’t necessarily accept that premise. I think you’re overgeneralizing.

For example, I’m working on a start-up right now that provides an on-line training aid for ballroom dancers. Obviously that’s a niche market, and it turns out that this kind of dancing is insanely popular in some countries and almost unknown in others. Here’s the kicker in this case: there are two major variations of ballroom, which are known as “American style” and “International style”, for much the reasons you’d expect. If you’re looking for trends, you have to take that difference in the prevailing culture into account.

Of course most markets won’t have quite such an obvious and US-centric polarisation as we happen to have in our field. I’m just trying to illustrate that in any kind of specialist market, you have to look at the local culture in different places, not just the language they speak and the size of the population.

Re: European startups and US software patents: Threat or Opportunity?

#23

Post by danmaz74 »

Chris_Newton wrote: post #22
danmaz74 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. My point is that today in software - especially consumer software - the USA is the reference market, the one the whole world looks up to to understand the most current trends. Do you think that, for a Chinese, hearing that software X is the most successful in the USA is the same as hearing that it is the most successful in the EU? I don't think so (whatever I could like to think).

My point is that today in software - especially consumer software - the USA is the reference market, the one the whole world looks up to to understand the most current trends. And my point is that I don’t necessarily accept that premise. I think you’re overgeneralizing. For example, I’m working on a start-up right now that provides an on-line training aid for ballroom dancers. Obviously that’s a niche market, and it…

Problem is, that if you have to look at the local culture in different places, becoming globally famous becomes much more difficult anyway.

However, I didn't want to mean that it's impossible to become global without being validated in the US. Just that it's much (very much, imho) more difficult.

Re: European startups and US software patents: Threat or Opportunity?

#24

Post by rahoulb »

atirip wrote: post #11
adrianmn wrote: post #2

So when is an Europe based company actually considered as entering the us market and fall under us patent laws? (edit)The question is about web companies, located outside US but selling to us customers(software,web apps, ebooks ... - digital products).

Define, what do you think in "entering the us market". Europe based companies can not (even accidentally) fall under US laws. US laws apply only on US soil.

Isn't that the point of the TVShack extradition? A UK citizen running a site hosted in Sweden (I think) is extradited for breaking US copyright laws?

Re: European startups and US software patents: Threat or Opportunity?

#25

Post by Chris_Newton »

danmaz74 wrote: post #23
Chris_Newton wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is that today in software - especially consumer software - the USA is the reference market, the one the whole world looks up to to understand the most current trends. And my point is that I don’t necessarily accept that premise. I think you’re overgeneralizing. For example, I’m working on a start-up right now that provides an on-line training aid for ballroom dancers. Obviously that’s a niche market, and it…

Problem is, that if you have to look at the local culture in different places, becoming globally famous becomes much more difficult anyway. However, I didn't want to mean that it's impossible to become global without being validated in the US. Just that it's much (very much, imho) more difficult.

Problem is, that if you have to look at the local culture in different places, becoming globally famous becomes much more difficult anyway.

Sure. No-one said running a business with a global market was going to be easy. :-)

Re: European startups and US software patents: Threat or Opportunity?

#26

Post by antninja »

Chris_Newton wrote: post #13

[T]o become a global player in software, success in Europe is not enough: You need to be validated in the US. Why? Sure, the US is a big place, so if you’re making general purpose software aimed at an English-speaking consumer market then you’d probably want to sell there. On the other hand, in the Internet age, the US is still only one potential market, and depending on your niche other markets might be far larger.…

Yes: while Spotify is trying to win the US market, Deezer, its French competitor, is targeting every other country of the world. They can remain unknown in the USA and still become huge (they're owned by Orange[1] which is also inexistant in the US).

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(telecommunications)

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