Holmes was clearly shooting for the stratospheric status of zillionaires like Zuckerberg, Bezos, and Musk—fortunes that some people are beginning to call immoral in themselves. Back in the days when Holmes was lionized in cover stories, few questioned that ambition. Even more troubling is that such fortunes can be made in proprietary health care advances. Big Pharma keeps jacking up the price of medicine, because it can.
Meanwhile, some surgeons who discover a cool new technique in the operating room are rushing to the patent office instead of sharing the life-saving innovation, ethics be damned. Instead, Holmes did what we now seem to expect of bright people in this economy—start a company that makes sure the idea is proprietary.
End of an era? In US vs. Elizabeth Holmes, we had a newsworthy defendant on the docket. But the system itself was not on trial. Patents have always been critical to internet business models. Walker isn't your typical Internet start-up CEO. At 43, he's a Scarsdale, New York-born veteran of more than a dozen companies.
Marketing, not technology, has been his focus. The Internet, of course, is sort of a marketer's nirvana, a gathering place for millions of credit-card-holding consumers. Walker, however, was clever enough to realize … that the Net can enable heretofore unimaginable business models. Models that could—and would--change virtually every industry on the planet. Walker believes that those who think up such ideas should own them, a conviction reinforced by recent legal rulings holding that business methods could be patented.
The first big idea was Priceline, which allows people to name their own price for flights, if they offer flexibility on carrier and times. The airlines can sell unused seats, and won't lose their regular customers, since Priceliners can't specify which airline they want. Walker patented the scheme. Then, after his brain trust figured out a way that airlines might fight the idea an "anytime ticket" sold cheaper in exchange for letting the airline choose the flight , he patented that scheme, too.
Just in case. Timely question, Michael. In the strictest sense, you already have an affirmative answer. Having a mighty virtual sword in an online game is much more useful than having a steel scimitar in the house.
Ergo, the billions of dollars paid in virtual materiel are absolutely worth it to those gamers. Or consider fashion, which is largely about impressing others with a show of good taste or creativity. Cancel Report. Create a new account. Log In. Select another language:. Please enter your email address: Submit. Powered by CITE. Know another quote from Cable Guy?
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