Professor Mark Lemley is quoted in a New York Times story about a new wireless e-mail service, Freedom Mail, that the inventor says resulted from work predating the filing of important patents in this area. Lemley commented on the effect of intellectual property battles on innovation:

''The fact is that ideas spring up simultaneously all the time,'' said Mark A. Lemley, a Stanford University professor who specializes in patent law. He said there was a growing movement among legal scholars and economists to back changes in patent law to protect the concept of independent invention.