[Daktoria]

http://driveinnovation.org/issues/private-investment

Private companies in the United States invented the technologies that define the modern world. Other countries have marveled at the ingenuity of American entrepreneurs and seek to emulate our success. Our policymakers, however, have dimmed our brightest private research facilities, yielded our best ideas to foreign competitors, and discouraged investments in our nation’s economic future.

• Bell Labs invented the transistors that made computers and other electronic devices possible; developed the world’s first communications satellite; discovered radio astronomy; created the UNIX operating system (used in Internet servers, Apple devices, and Linux) and the C++ computer programming language (the most widely used computer programming language in the world); created the solar cell; invented the technologies used in today’s 4G mobile networks; created the charged coupling device (used in digital cameras); and developed the wireless local area network. After the Department of Justice dismantled the Bell system, Bell Labs declined until Alcatel, a French company, acquired its research facilities in 2006. Two years later, Alcatel-Lucent abandoned basic science, material physics, and semiconductor research.
  
  
• Motorola created the world’s first cellular phone and built the infrastructure used by mobile service providers around the world. In 2010, Motorola sold its mobile infrastructure assets, including its R&D facilities, to Nokia Siemens Networks, a Finnish company. Huawei, a Chinese company founded in 1987, is now the world’s second largest telecom equipment manufacturer. There is no company in the U.S. today that manufactures a complete line of mobile Internet equipment.
  
  
• At its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Xerox invented the personal computer, the computer mouse, the graphical user interface (bought by Apple and used in the Macintosh), WYSIWYG text editors (used in Microsoft Word), and Ethernet networking. Xerox also invented the laser printer in 1969, which produced record revenues in 1973-1975. As a result of the laser printer’s success, the Federal Trade Commission brought an anti-trust suit against Xerox, and in 1975, forced it to license its entire patent portfolio – primarily to Japanese competitors. The FTC permitted Xerox to enjoy the full benefits of its creation for only three years.
  
  
• The most innovative companies in the United States today – the companies that are the most vital to our global competitive position – are facing government regulation at every turn. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google, the Justice Department is suing Apple Computer, and the Federal Communications Commission blocked AT&T’s attempt to purchase T-Mobile – a German company.

It should be no surprise that private investment in our research facilities and infrastructure has declined. There is little incentive to bear the risk of capital investment in visionary projects when the typical reward for success is a government lawsuit or divestiture to a foreign company. When the government limits a company’s return on investment to three years, it encourages “short-termism.” If we wish to remain the world’s largest economy in the long term, we need to renew our commitment to private investment.

Paul Ryan is hosting a Mad Men themed dinner in order to showcase a new organization called the Competitive Enterprise Institute. This is one of the main projects it has on the table, and I thought it'd be something interesting to share with those interested in media oriented R+D.

[Rainbow Crow]

Keeping AT&T from acquiring T-Mobile was a great thing in my opinion. Is this a big business lobbying organization masquerading as an R&D project?