On Jun 2, 2013, at 8:08 AM, MM wrote:
1) Your stance on patents and trademarks. One guy argued that it was foolhardy not to pursue patents on your designs. What if you innovate a highly profitable and valuable product that sets an industry standard? You could stand to lose without protecting your property.
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1. No court has ever recognized patents or copyrights as property. Only non-lawyers say such things.
2. Of the near 7 million patents issued in 1789 in USA, almost nothing patented ever turns into a product. Did you know that? Of the extremely rare item that does become a product, almost none are ever profitable. The only correlation in reality is patent = failure. There is a reason for this, built into the patent law, and that is why they reversed it 2 years ago (but made it even worse.)
4. What matters in business is customers, nothing else. Marketing gets you customers. Copyrights and patents get you nothing a business can use to advance the mission.
5. We do have a copyright and patent regime. But businesses merely work around that, just another aggravation among the many that the sate imposes.
6. If you have a highly profitable and valuable product that sets an industry standard, then keep you customers happy, don't sue other people whose customers are happy. ***
***Importing is a function at a border, completely contrived, hardly an industry. An industry is a category of creation and distribution. So whether it dies or not, it does not matter. What matters is customers and supply.***
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6. If you have a highly profitable and valuable product that sets an industry standard, then keep you customers happy, don't sue other people whose customers are happy. ***
2) In your book, you stated that the importer need not worry about the buyer or retailer going around you directly to the supplier. A lot has changed since that book was written.
***Nothing of any substance has changed. Some URLs, CHina became the #1 exporter (perhaps) and Canada became USA's #1 trading partner. But nothing of substance.***
I wonder how the role of the importer will be affected in an Amazon.com society where it is increasingly easy for a supplier to sell directly to customer.
***I sell TO amazon.com and ON amazon.com. Amazon is just another retail outlet. An electronic Sears catalog. The only new thing there is the "long tail" Bezos was brilliant to see that info was more valuable than transactions, but countless people saw that before. BUt that he would allow competitors and suppliers to compete with him on his own selling platform, he jumped ahead of the pack to the obvious conclusion. The internet has lowered the cost of research and communication. Amazon is the ultimate result.***
Some peers have stated that importing is a dying industry. ( I would argue that a need for innovation will never die, and as long as people are buying and selling goods, the role of a middleman will always be needed)
-What do you see as the future of importing?-If I asked you to write a movie set 50 years in the future about merchants and importers, what kind of future would you envision?
**When Steve Jobs stared Apple, microcomputers were a toy, and there were no telephone salespeople. Stereo salesmen were as slimy as used car salesmen. When Jobs died he was the worlds #1 telephone salesman, and the most admired man in the world for his stereo salesmanship. And microcomputers are now an integrated tool in society. There is no prophesying the future. But there are customers today. I would not guess what's next when my customers will tell me what is next.***
-What changes have you noticed since you wrote "How Small Business Trades Worldwide?"
1. We lost two generation of entrepreneurs. Banking in the 80s, dotcom in the 90s, real estate in the 00s. We have 2 younger generations who have no idea how to be self-employed. this is dangerous.
2. The long tail. See Anderson's book.
3. While no one was looking, regulators made life extremely difficult for the self-employed. (But when in history has that not happened?)
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-What is the anatomy of a sale in the year 2013?
-Is the role of an Independent Sales Rep. the same as it was when you wrote the book? Is there a "new way"?
-Will companies start going around importers?
-What role do you see social media playing in this new future of trading?
-What do you think of the project funding websites such as Kickstarter.com?
***A wonderful thing. Nothing new. People used to propose a book and look for "subscribers" people who vowed to buy a copy if the book got written. They signed their name under the title and the author. On the strength of this the printer would print out that many copies to sell to the subscribers.
The US Government is working very hard to destroy indigogo and kickstarter. The IRS will rule the currency raised is income, and therefore taxable at 35% or whatever the rate is. So raise more than you need and set it aside for wars.***
-Do new US laws affect the industry in a way that didn't exist when the book was written?
-WIll you make a revised edition of the book to reflect today's standards?
Sorry for the question bombardment, but you are my mine of information right now. I would be happy to support you in any way I could. I won't be able to attend you class, but I wish I could. There is a ban on Youtube in China, so I cannot access your videos.
Feel free to forward this by email to three of your friends.
2 comments:
update: over 8 million patents have issued to date, but I agree with you wholeheartedly that most (that is, all really) are worthless. Pursuing IPR is a major time, money and resource sucking blackhole - it's unfortunate that it has the prominence that it has, even among people that should know better. IPR is lethal to startups.
Also, marketing gets you customers ATTENTION, NOT necessarily a customer that buys. You still need to get a product that a customer wants, marketing just increases awareness.
I look forward to buying the updated edition of your world trade book.
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