According to the Washington Post, “

[s]everal leaders of Washington’s technology community are creating an investment firm to back local entrepreneurs as they start up companies, the latest in a series of local organizations helping to turn promising innovations into businesses. LaunchBox Digital will provide up to $30,000 in seed money to Web and wireless start-ups and offer advice and guidance from a roster of prominent advisers. More-mature companies could receive investments of up to $1 million. The advisers include top former executives from AOL and local technology and media companies, such as Ted Leonsis, AOL vice chairman emeritus; Proxicom founder and ObjectVideo chief executive Raul Fernandez; and Motley Fool founders Tom and David Gardner; as well as other notables such as former Federal Communications Commission chairmen Reed Hundt and Michael K. Powell.”

The Silicon Valley Watcher today has an interesting article on the Valley’s alleged “skills crisis” and on “VMWare hiring all the engineers in the Valley.”

Internetnews.com reports that “[j]ust when it looked like the tax-free ride was over for online shoppers in New York, the state’s governor changed his tune. Late this afternoon, Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s office released a statement rescinding the new tax policy that would have required online retailers to begin collecting state sales taxes starting Dec. 7. […] ‘Gov. Spitzer probably sees the state as overreaching,’ NetChoice Executive Director Steve DelBianco wrote InternetNews.com in an e-mail.”

The Financial Times writes that “Europe is to reinforce its tougher line against China by following the US in slapping tariffs on Chinese products that benefit from alleged subsidies. In the biggest policy change to emerge from a year-long review of the EU’s trade defence instruments, Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, is to propose to allow the Commission to start anti-subsidy actions itself. It would no longer have to wait to receive complaints from companies, which are mostly reluctant to do so for fear of retaliation by Beijing. Documents seen by the Financial Times show the proposed move has strong backing from EU governments and some support from industry, as patience over the growing trade deficit with China – increasing by $20m (€13.6m, £9.7m) an hour – wears thin.”

The San Francisco Chronicle today features an article by Cisco’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Mark Chandler in which Chandler argues that Congress should make it a priority to “bring our patent system into the 21st century” because “[i]mproving our nation’s patent system is not just a business or technology issue. It is an issue that affects our ability to create the jobs our citizens need and the products they want to purchase.”