Ch. Tronche's blog

Wired ran a half-serious, half-fun readers’ contest to find ways to fix the “broken patent system” (their words, not mine). Here are the results.

There are some jewels among more mundane ideas. The separation between innovation and patents was outlined. There’s the idea that a patent should cost a recurring fee to its holder (”use it or lose it”), something I believe deeply in the field of copyright, but don’t think could work for patents.

However there’s one sentence that I think is so true that it can’t be repeated often enough, especially when talking with those European commissioners that are still mistaking patents for innovation: With little innovation, we are competing on the basis of labor cost.

It’s ballot time again, and today french citizens elect their president for the next five years. The contenders are the favorite Nicolas Sarkozy, a quite radical right-wing leader, and Ségolène Royal, the Socialist Party (Parti Socialiste or PS in french) champion.

I’ve already blogged about some weaknesses of the french PS, but my wife told me a story pointing to more, and this is were the marketing comes to the stage.

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Ségolène Royal est arrivée au 2nd Tour (cf. mon post précédent).

Au cours du dernier débat télévisuel qui l’a opposée à Nicolas Sarkozy, elle a été bien meilleure communicante (et donc candidate) que la plupart ne l’aurait pensé, moi y compris.

Les sondages la donnent cependant perdante au 2nd tour, qui aura lieu Dimanche. Il ne faut préjuger de rien avant que le résultat définitif soit connu, mais tel n’est pas le sujet du jour.
J’aimerais pointer 2 faiblesses de la campagne du PS (ou force de la campagne de Nicolas Sarkozy) et ce qui me semble être une faiblesse structurelle du PS dans sa stratégie d’orientation.

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