Churlish, me?

Right, I was just accused of being churlish towards the Chiefly Scientists of the federated states of Australia.

Additionally I was challenged to suggest what the breed should be doing (given the churlish manner of my commentary on the subject etc etc).

Well that is easy. Here is a quick and dirty list – I will add to it as ideas come to mind.

1. First, for universities and research institutes that get government grants for research, I would put a stop to the citation madness that drives researchers into crowded spaces where innovation is virtually impossible. The recent Dowling Report in the UK is a good starting point.

2. Enshrine the right that all government funded researchers own their own IP

3. Allow for abstract ideas in patents and allow software and business model patents (the opposite to what the US just ‘outlawed’). This would give local IT start-ups a more solid local monopoly which would reduce the risk for investors and this in turn would help promote a local investment community

4. Take all re-examination of patents in patent enforcement court cases away from judges and give it back to the professionals at the patent office

5. Make sure there is a speciality low-cost quick patent court which awards super large punitive damages to patent infringers

6. Introduce a really high % patent box tax concession for the patented export earnings of locally domiciled corporates (that have patents in the countries where the foreign income is earned).

7. Enhanced tax incentives and other government mandates for Venture Capital, but if and only if VC fund managers pass a suitable VC apprenticeship threshold. No self-appointed white shoe brigaders, Mac bank refugees, former entrepreneurs etc would be eligible

8. Promote the development of ‘Fonterra’s’ for the existing export markets in the meat, horticulture and education sectors where we have many small exporters with no global ‘weight’

9. Ban all political donations. (Less realistically wouldn’t it be nice if we could ban anyone entering politics before the age of 40. Maybe we could also disallow all lawyers, arts graduates, former lobbyists, former journalists and former union organisers from entering politics).

10. Sack all the current Chief Scientists and appoint a new bunch of Chief Technologists that have each been successful in a high-tech industry or two