Patent Wars Cost Society $500 Billion

A new study by three professors at the Boston University School of Law puts the cost of patent lawsuits at $500 billion in lost wealth to defendants during the 20-year period from 1990 to 2010.

The average lawsuit costs the defendant about $122 million, and the median loss is $20 million. According to the BU study, about nine percent of the lost wealth goes to what are politely known as non-practicing entities, NPEs, and more commonly known as patent trolls. The rest simply evaporates as legal fees, costs of lost business, management distraction, and diversion of resources from product development.

Of course, every out of pocket cost is revenue for somebody else. And "management distraction" and "diversion of resources from product development" is, for competitors, a "useful" development.

Patent Wars Cost Society $500 Billion

3 in 5 U.S. Smart Phone Owners Use Social Nets on Their Mobiles

In the United States, three of every five smart phone owners age 13 and older accessed social networking or blog destinations on their mobile devices for the three-month average period ending June 2011, according to comScore.

The number of U.S. smart phone users who ever access social networking or blog destinations on their mobiles has grown 72 percent in the past year to reach an audience of 47.8 million visitors.

3 in 5 U.S. smart phone owners use social networks on their mobiles

$577 Million in Daily Deals Go Unclaimed

"Breakage" is a significant revenue generator in many businesses. Breakage refers to services, goods or value purchase by consumers, but never redeemed.

Nearly 22 percent of deals purchased from Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe and elsewhere go unredeemed according to a survey from Rice University.

This represents a huge secondary market for re-selling deals, which is precisely what DealsGoRound does. DealsGoRound says such "breakage" represents a $577 million opportunity in the daily deals space.

The study from Rice found that 55.5 percent of businesses surveyed made money on their daily deals promotions, 17.9 percent broke even, and 26.6 percent of businesses lost money.

Keep in mind that 21.7% of their deals go unredeemed, which means the businesses pocket the money.

Almost 80 percent of customers who redeemed deals were new customers, but only 36 percent of them spent beyond the face value of the deal, and the study says that only 20 percent of customers returned to purchase something at full price.

$577 Million in Daily Deals Go Unredeemed

Local Advertising Will Drive Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising will mushroom from $790 million in 2010 to $4 billion by 2015, according to BIA/Kelsey. Local shares are $404 million and $2.8 billion, respectively, putting local on pace for 70 percent market share.

Ironically, it is national advertisers driving the local-mobile growth. Why Mobile Isn't Just for Big Brands

Some 48 percent of small business respondents surveyed said they are using Facebook for advertising or promoting their business. Among those surveyed, 40 percent said they have a Facebook page specifically for their business. Additional findings indicate that among respondents, 25 percent use other social networks, 22 percent use a blog and 19 percent use Twitter to promote their business.

TV Shift for Decades Has Been in the Direction of "On Demand"

One can argue that the evolution of television and movie consumption over the last few decades has been one story: of a shift from linear consumption to consumption on demand.

Digital technology has improved the quality of the experience, but is not solely responsible for the trend.

People just want to watch what they want, when they want it. Evolution of home video

Tablet Shipments Exceeding Forecasts

IDC says that tablet shipments in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were close to 4.4 million units in the second quarter of 2011, about 700,000 more than the researchers had originally forecast.

That translates to a growth of nearly 400 percent over the same quarter last year, and 82 percent more than the first quarter of 2011.

Overall, the region is on track for shipments of 22 million for the full year. Juniper, which has today released worldwide figures, predicts that tablet shipments will reach 253 million by 2016—the figure for 2011 it says will be 55.2 million units. Tablet Shipments Exceeding Forecasts

Carrier Ethernet: the Animation

This animation about carrier Ethernet, used for mobile backhaul, was produced by Accedian Networks,