Having been a lawyer, I’ve always held deep opinions about the Supreme Court, many of which were obliterated today.  I’d always imagined that the justices would be old, out of touch, disengaged, dry and not able to really explore the weight of the issues in oral arguments given only one hour is allocated per argument. 

If we go to the scorecard:

Old: yep

Out of touch: definitely not

Disengaged: absolute not, so long as you don’t count Justice Thomas who looked like he’d rather be elsewhere and never said anything

Dry: no:  Justic Breyer was cracking jokes right and left, but Chief Justice Roberts is not humorless judge

Exploration: perhaps most surprisingly, an hour was more than enough

Final Tally:  Jason’s Preconceived Notions: 1, New Found Opinions: 4

For those of you who don’t know, the Bilski argument addressed whether or not business methods are patentable.  Anyone who follows my blog knows that I staunchly favor the abolishment of business method patents and also feel that most software patents are contrary to proper innovation policy.  The judges allowed the Bilski camp about 2 minutes of uninterrupted argument and then launched directly into questioning.  What was impressive was how direct and well prepared they were as they attached the key elements of the issues surrounding business method patents.

To me, it was apparent that the justices had grave concerns about the validity of these types of patents.  In fact, when the rebuttal from the government came (on the side of getting rid of business method patents), the justices pushed him on why software should be patentable.  The lawyer representing them (name unknown) ducked and weaved as best as he could, but it felt like the court would have thrown out both business method patents AND software if he had stood up and said “they should go too, your honor.”

My bet is that business method patents are gone.  What will be very interesting will be their language regarding software patents, as software validity wasn’t part of the case, but clearly on the justices’ minds.

All in all, I was massively impressed with the mental horsepower of the court and their ability to parse a very complicated subject in a short amount of time.  Justice Breyer stood out as really engaged, but they all (but Thomas) were impressive individuals.  Thanks Phil.  This was really a treat. 

One item to note:  if you get the chance to go to the Supreme Court, their cafe is mostly forgettable.  Don’t get the French dressing.  Way too much sugar.  (Picture of Phil and I below at the cafe),

They’re getting a lot of new deals and need another person to help manage the workflow. The job is perfect for someone with big law firm experience who likes the cerebral challenge that comes with M&A but is looking for something outside of the law firm environment. 

SRS works with the top VCs and attorneys on some of the highest profile private M&A deals in the country, so you’d be networking with the best in the business.  Specifically, they need someone who can review and negotiate the transaction documents, negotiate the terms of their engagement, and manage any issues that may arise after closing. 

Ideally, the person would work in Colorado, but San Francisco is an option too.  Minimum of 4 years of big law firm experience required, preferably with at least some M&A experience. 

If interested, send a resume to Paul Koenig at pkoenig@shareholderrep.com.

The best part of the afternoon, however, was a visit by Rick Levine, co-founder and chocolatier of Seth Ellis Chocolates.  Rick decided to drop by and bring some chocolates for me to try.  The first was obvious on sight – a peanut butter cup style chocolate treat.  I took a bite and said “this is the best peanut butter cup that I’ve ever had.”

There was just one thing:  there are no peanuts, nor peanut butter in the best peanut butter cup that I’ve ever had.  Rick’s cracked the code.  A gluten-free, nut free, organic and compostable packaged cup treat that blows away anything that I’ve ever had. 

He had both milk chocolate and dark chocolate varieties, too.   Yum yum.  Rick, GREAT job.  Go out to your local grocer and pick yourselves up some.  And for those of you with nut allergies, rejoice in being able to enjoy one of life’s great treats:  chocolate and "peanut” butter. 

Whatever. 

Thanks to my friend Steve Tonsfeldt, one of my most trusted musical discovery folks as well as an incredible M&A lawyer for passing along.  See, I don’t hate all lawyers, despite rumors to the contrary.

Unfortunately, I became part of the show and had a bad hair day.  I’m speaking in front of my Donkey Kong machine, which good friend David Cohen points out the irony of me talking about the future of human/computer interactions while in front of a vintage arcade machine. 

Forgive the location and hair, but watch the show. It’s going to be great and feature an unbelievably exciting investment of ours. 

All I can say to this is “vomit.”

There are white papers being developed, politicians lobbied and it’s all based on the proposition that what’s good for small business is good for the United States.

I agree with the premise.  In fact, my open letter to the Obama administration on what innovation policy should be details my support and how I think the government should be involved in these efforts.

But it shouldn’t involve bailouts or cash handouts to our industry.  I find it offensive that high net worth angel investors or highly compensated venture capitalists along with their sophisticated investors need to be bailed out.  We, as an industry, should be responsible for our investments and frankly, the current recession hasn’t affected our early-stage industry very much.  Asking for government help is just being greedy and opportunistic. 

Similarly, the entrepreneurs who take risks to create companies have the same risks today that they did previously.  Yes, on the margin, it might be a bit tougher, but there are plenty of benefits as well, like lower priced rents and the ease of hiring good people.

To say that we should use the general public’s tax dollars to prop up our industry is wrong and I encourage people to openly oppose it to those that are starting to get behind the movement. 

November 11th kicks off a presentation by Paul Berberian talking about how to pick a good idea and whether or not it is worth starting a business around it.  The event will take place in the law school’s large courtroom at 6pm, with networking to follow.

The New Venture Challenge continues to ramp up Nov. 18 with “Pitch Day,” where entrants will deliver short pitches about their business ideas and network to round out their teams with expertise from CU programs ranging from engineering and liberal arts to business and law. The pitches begin at 6 p.m. in the ATLAS Building, room 100.

More information can be found here.

In fact today, we announced our latest investment.  The company is called Organic Motion and they reached out to us having absolutely no connections to our group.

We met the company through our blogging at the Foundry Group.  It’s the second company (Brightleaf being the other) that introduced themselves to us after reading posts that we’ve written on our personal and Foundry Group blogs.   It’s really exciting to expand our network with new people and we are proud of the fact that we invest in entrepreneurs whom we’ve had no previous connections with.  Yes, the cold call still works if you have a great team, a great idea and fit within one of our investment themes.

In Organic Motion’s case, the company fit right into our human computer interaction investment theme, along with our previous investments Oblong and Smith and Tinker.

The company is based in New York City and is a leading innovator of computer vision and advanced motion capture systems. Their technology dramatically increases a computer’s ability to see and understand the motion of humans and other living organisms. The company offers groundbreaking turnkey and customized motion capture systems that utilize its patent-pending breakthrough computer vision technology.  For those of you interested in the space, this is the first markerless technology that we’ve seen that really works.

Welcome Andrew, Jonathan and team on our new partnership.  Thank you very much for finding us.

And every time I have the same reaction:  So what?

Check out the video below of the Eigenharp that claims to be the most revolutionary new musical instrument of the last 60 years”

The problems that I have with these new generation of instruments are all the same.

1. They are nothing more than controllers that rely on current synthesizer technology to produce sounds which in many cases pale in comparison to the original instrument; and

2. You look like a complete tool when you are playing it.

One can argue that sound reproduction technology will continue to improve but one thing that will never change is that musicians want to look cool, not just sound good.

I do like the Bourne soundtrack choice of song, though.