About a week or so ago, the NY Times’ Green Inc. blog posted this piece about the tax barriers to the growth of renewable energy companies. Many of the companies rely heavily on something called “tax equity” for their funding, but flaws in the tax equity system inhibit the companies’ growth. This could be a genuine concern for many Oregon businesses because of the vast amount of renewable energy companies in the state, many of which rely heavily upon the government. (more…)
It seems like everyone is talking about open source these days. We read many predictions at the end of 2008 that a technology theme for 2009 would be the continued growth of the open source movement. Even President Obama’s new administration is asking experts about the benefits of open source within the federal government (451 CAOS Theory writes about that here.) (more…)
ICANN, the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which coordinates the Internet’s domain addressing system, is currently working on a plan to expand the present number of domains. The Internet has 21 generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as .com, .net, etc. ICANN’s proposed plan will expand that number significantly by creating entirely new domains (more…)
The Wall Street Journal ran this story today about the boom in investment and sales growth in alternative energy (or “greentech”) companies. The story makes us think, of course, of Oregon, which is proving to be a cleantech hotbed. We’ve written about this in the past in our Renewable Business in Green Portland post and in our Starting a Green Business post. This latest WSJ article (more…)
Microsoft, through its new BizSpark program, appears to be inserting itself at the center of a global startup network for software developers, including here in Oregon. Last week we read about TiE’s announcement that it’s partnering with BizSpark. Today we read that OTBC has just become a BizSpark network partner. (more…)
We just came across this post at the Law & Life: Silicon Valley Blog about a recent update in the Jacobsen v. Katzer case in the federal District Court in San Francisco, a case with connections to Portland, and which has already produced a number of important legal decisions about open source software (OSS). As the author notes, an appeal last year in the case produced a great victory for licensors of OSS, while this most recent Order by District Judge Jeffrey White is a setback for OSS licensors seeking to enjoin copyright infringement because the burden to obtain an injunction for copyright infringement has been elevated. (more…)
Over at the Wired’s Threat Level blog is this post about the recent legal “victory” for online content hosting sites like Veoh, YouTube, MySpace and others like them, which appear to have added yet another layer of copyright infringement immunity to their arsenal. As Wired explains, the victory occurred in the ongoing California federal court case UMG v. Veoh, in which (more…)
Many entrepreneurs may already be aware of the wealth of startup resources in the Portland area. Others may still be learning the landscape. Whatever the case, it’s a good idea to step back once in a while and survey what’s out there. The Portland area is fortunate to have a number of recognizable business incubators, which serve startups by helping them become established (more…)
Last week our local bicycle industry appeared to be doing quite well, according to this month’s cover story in the Oregonian, which we also wrote about here. But this morning’s New York Times features this piece, entitled “A Surge in Bicyclists Appears to Be Waiting.” The article discusses the sudden “grim reality” of the bicycle industry, which is experiencing a rapid fall in sales following the industry’s “summer of [its] dreams.” (more…)
Apparently Oregon’s Business Energy Tax Credit, which is one of a multitude of tax incentives drawing companies to the state (see a list in this previous post), is proving to be more popular and generous than anticipated. The ease of qualifying for, and receiving, the tax credit has pushed the number of applicants to 4,000, as noted in yesterday’s Oregonian, which ran this story about the companies that are benefiting, calling the credit “the state’s fastest growing tax shelter.” (more…)