Roundup: RPX takes on patent trolls, Facebook revamping Marketplace, and more

November 25, 2008 | Eric Eldon | Comments |

Here’s the latest action:

RPX Corp takes on patent trolls — The company is buying patents to keep them from so-called “troll” companies that use patents for lawsuits or to collect licensing payments. Companies that pay a fixed yearly fee to RPX get licenses it holds; RPX pledges never to assert the patents. IBM and Cisco are already partners.

Is Microsoft Live Search getting a new name? — Maybe it will be changed to Kumo, Japanese for “cloud” or “spider?” LiveSide has a look at the evidence.

GigaOm leaves ad network Federated Media for IDG — The Silicon Valley tech blog has a number of niche sites focused on various verticals, that it believes tech-media conglomerate IDG is better suited to sell for.

LinkedIn finishes rolling out new search features — A process it began a month ago.

Facebook looking for Marketplace partner — The company’s in-house classified service hasn’t been a big hit, and it’s been looking for a partner to take it over. It may have found one, as TechCrunch hears it could relaunch as early as the end of this year.

Flaw discovered in some versions of Vista — It could cause Microsoft’s latest operating system to crash, or become exposed to intrusion. A fix is expected in the company’s next service pack update.

Estimate: More than $276M of cybercrime services advertised in a year — The latest study by security company Symantec, here.

Lessons on startup survival in a recession — Assembled by academics who studied the dot-com bubble bursting.

Widescreen video comes to YouTube — The site’s video player is now 960 pixels wide, giving some videos more room to play. Most videos, however, will just have the extra space blacked out. The viewer experience for grainy concert footage hasn’t been greatly affected, as the screenshot below shows:

[Patent graph via the Wall Street Journal]

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About the Author, Eric Eldon

Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.

  • Yuri Ammosov
    This startup survival thing in NYT that basically says you must know a VC to be funded...

    1. Looking at a data set of 1,018 companies, Mr. Gera determined that not a single entrepreneur received venture capital funding by submitting a business plan “over the transom.” By contrast, about 5 percent of entrepreneurs who knew the venture capitalist or gained a personal introduction received funding.
    2. А partner of a venture capital firm that was closing its doors donated every business plan that the firm had received from 1999 to 2002— documents covering some 1,100 companies.

    Apparently, funding on introductions only is EXACTLY the reason why this venture firm failed so miserably.