Intellectual Property Presentation

I thought the presentation was pretty interesting, if a bit rambling.  It was basically all new to me, so I liked learning about the differences in trademark, copyright, etc., as well as the process of getting a patent.  I know my father has a number of software patents from his time working with Hyperformix, so it was neat to learn how he likely went about it at his company, and how it make work for me in the future.

I definitely feel like some type of software patents should be available, and I think it sucks that after the Alice supreme court decision they seem to be harder to get.  It feels like software, at least in some cases, is analogous to machine patents.  If you can patent a physical thing to do something in a certain way, then it seems like you should be able to patent a software program or algorithm in a similar fashion.  Though I'm sure that there are far more intricacies to the issue than what I know.

Guest Lecture: Larry Bridges

So this lecture was probably a bit less engaging to me than to others, as I am currently enrolled in the Cybersecurity class that Mr. Bridges is teaching.  However, I very much enjoy him as a professor/lecturer.  He is almost always energetic and excited to talk about the material, and loves when we get into discussions or look up answers to questions that we have brought up.  I am almost never uninterested in the class, and wish that we could go into more detail, but security encompasses so many things that it would be impossible.  I think that Mr. Bridges is a great orator and a very effective teacher, and I would recommend him to anyone.