Palantir: More Legal Excitement
September 6, 2016
One of the Beyond Search goslings directed my attention to a legal document “Palantir Technologies Inc. (”Palantir”) Sues Defendants Marc L. Abramowitz…” The 20 page complaint asserts that a Palantir investor sucked in proprietary information and then used that information outside the boundaries of Sillycon Valley norms of behavior. These norms apply to the one percent of the one percent in my opinion.
The legal “complaint” points to several patent documents which embodied Palantir’s proprietary information. The documents require that one use the Justia system to locate; specifically, Provisional Application No. 62/072,36 Provisional Application No. 62/066,716, and Provisional Application No. 62/094,888. These provisional applications, I concluded, reveal that Palantir seeks to enter insurance and health care type markets. This information appears to put Palantir Technologies at a competitive disadvantage.
Who is the individual named in the complaint?
Marc Abramowitz, who is associated with an outfit named KT4. KT4 does not have much of an online presence. The sparse information available to me about Abramowitz is that he is a Harvard trained lawyer and connected to Stanford’s Hoover econo-think unit. Abramowitz’s link to Palantir is that he invested in the company and made visits to the Hobbits’ Palo Alto “shire” part of his work routine.
Despite the legalese, the annoyance of Palantir with Abramowitz seeps through the sentences.
For me what is interesting is that IBM i2 asserted several years ago that Palantir Technologies improperly tapped into proprietary methods used in the Analyst’s Notebook software product and system. See “i2 and Palantir: Resolved Quietly.”
One new twist is that the Palantir complaint against Abramowitz includes a reference to Abramowitz’s appropriating of the word “Shire.” If you are not in the know in Sillycon Valley, Palantir has referenced its offices as the shire; that is, the firm’s office in Palo Alto.
When I read the document, I did not spot a reference to Hobbits or seeing stones.
When I checked this morning (September 6, 2016), the document was still publicly accessible at the link above. However, Palantir’s complaint about the US Army’s procurement system was sealed shortly after it was filed. This Abramowitz complaint may go away for some folks as well. If you can’t locate the Abramowitz document, you will have to up your legal research game. My hunch is that neither Palantir or Mr. Abramowitz will respond to your request for a copy.
There are several hypothetical, Tolkienesque cyclones from this dust up between and investor and the Palantir outfit, which is alleged to be a mythical unicorn:
- Trust seems to need a more precise definition when dealing with either Palantir and Abramowitz
- Some folks use Tolkein’s jargon and don’t want anyone else to “horn” in on this appropriation
- Filing patents on relatively narrow “new” concepts when one does not have a software engineering track record goes against the accepted norms of innovation
- IBM i2’s team may await the trajectory of this Abramowitz manner more attentively than the next IBM Watson marketing innovation.
Worth monitoring just for the irony molecules in this Palantir complaint. WWTK or What would Tolkien think? Perhaps a quick check of the seeing stone is appropriate.
Stephen E Arnold, September 6, 2016
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