Liquid Engines
Encyclopedia
Liquid Engines is a software company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...

. It provides products to help corporations manage their taxes.

Patent controversy

Liquid Engines has filed a number of patent application
Patent application
A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for the invention described and claimed by that application. An application consists of a description of the invention , together with official forms and correspondence relating to the application...

s that are considered to be tax patent
Tax patent
A tax patent is a patent that discloses and claims a system or method for reducing or deferring taxes. Tax patents have been granted predominantly in the United States but can be granted in other countries as well. They are considered to be a form of business method patent. They are also called...

s. These types of patents are controversial and legislation has been introduced into the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 to ban them. Thus both Liquid Engines and one of its founders, Edward Lazear, have come under criticism by organizations that are opposed to tax patents. Edward Lazear
Edward Lazear
Edward Paul "Ed" Lazear is an award-winning American economist, considered the founder of personnel economics, and was the chief economic advisor to President George W. Bush.-Career:...

 was President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

's chief economic adviser and signed over all of his ownership rights to the patent application to Liquid Engines in part to avoid a conflict of interest
Conflict of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....

.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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