Main Dish:

- not really sure I like where this is going. RIM filed a court motion saying that because their relay servers are located outside of the U.S., patent cases filed in the U.S. don't have jurisdiction. Obviously there are huge implications for patent law.

- TJ comments on the Nanotech primer in the Economist. I know, I know... it's pretty hard to mention nano with a straight face these days. Nonetheless, there is some pretty fascinating research ongoing, like creating industrial materials that have organic qualities of flexibility with inorganic qualities of strength and durability.

- the Chinese market isn't as big for some tech companies as they originally hoped.

- can German universities regain their lost glory?

- 3 Epinions founders sue Benchmark and August Capital. The only thing that is interesting about these cases is all the dirt that gets dug up in the court filings.

- Larry Ellison taunts SAP, itching for a showdown... what? you talkin to me

- The Supreme Court is hearing the Grokster case, Hollywood is arguing that illegal file sharing is not about technology. This is the first rational thing I've heard this industry say.

- McKinsey Quarterly has this interesting piece on extreme competition. While not quite as elegant in describing it, I've been talking with a bunch of internal strategy people about these concepts, and how shaping demand through being quick to identify an opportunity and flexible enough to respond to it outside of your traditional competitive framework is ridiculously hard for big companies.

- Scientific American has an extensive look at efforts to make better web searches. I read this article in the print magazine, and then ironically couldn't find it easily using their online search tool.

- and in the same issue of SciAm there is a short piece on how noise cancelling headphones work.

Comments

[Jack Phelps]

Regarding the Mckinsey thing--isn't that why it's easier just to make strategic investments and acquire most of the time? I don't forsee some massive shift towards flexibility from the current wait-for-proof-of-concept-then-acquire method.

[jeff]

yeah, I'd love to devote some time to writing a more extensive post on this cuz it's a little simplistic to suggest that the extreme competition concept is just about flexibility and speed. I think where McKinsey was going with it is that market dynamics are fundamentally changed and even 'agile' companies won't be ruthlessly competitive.