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Domain: patent-commons.org

Stories and comments across the archive that link to patent-commons.org.

Comments · 7

  1. Re:Either-Or by Eloquence · · Score: 1 · on Khan Academy Seeks Patent On Education A/B Testing

    Although Blackboard has filed patent lawsuits against competitors (and was briefly boycotted for it), it at least has issued an irrevocable patent pledge not to sue open source projects. I suspect ignorance, not foul play, on the part of Khan Academy is the cause.

    Ironically, nonprofit Khan Academy's Twitter pledge is less permissive than that of the corporate behemoth, since it reserves the right to sue anyone, for any reason, provided company and "inventor" agree. Not sure OIN is a good fit for its needs given its close tie to usage of patents within "Linux systems". Something like CC's model patent license or a simple, broad pledge never to use patents offensively against anyone may be a better fit.

    KA's policy error here is likely the result of swimming in the Silicon Valley ideological soup, where Twitter's pledge is considered remarkable. KA has never been an especially awesome organization when it comes to open source citizenry. For example, it uses the "non-commercial use" restriction for its materials, which is widely rejected within open source and free culture circles like Wikimedia, Linux, etc. Hopefully this will change over time as the organization becomes more aware of the policy discussions around these issues, since a lot of its work is otherwise excellent and world-changing.

  2. Twitter pledge is too weak by Eloquence · · Score: 4, Insightful · on Khan Academy Seeks Patent On Education A/B Testing

    As the summary states, Khan follows Twitter's patent pledge. This is a good first step as far as it goes, but it still explicitly allows for offensive litigation if the "inventor" agrees. That's not sufficient. At the very minimum, Khan should adopt a clear, irrevocable policy never to enforce patents against open source projects, like many Patent Commons participants. Ideally it should partner with Creative Commons to work out an even stronger patent license, consistent with its mission. CC has previously developed model patent licenses and I'm sure they'd be happy to help.

    If the Khan Academy user who originally posted in Slashdot in response is reading this -- please bring these resources to the attention of management.

  3. Link to Patent Commons by Tran · · Score: 1 · on Open Source Patent Donations?

    at least one - there may be others.
    http://www.patent-commons.org/ Check on Groklaw.net as well..

  4. Re:*HUGE* win for SUSE and MS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on SCO Loses

    Need I say more? MS and SUSE couldn't be in any better possible position. Red Hat and Ubuntu and the other small players are going to have quite a fight on their hands. Linux is not a copy of UNIX. Linux is not a copy of Unixware.

    Novell is listed here:
    http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/about_licensee s.php

    and here ...

    http://www.patent-commons.org/

    All of that just about kills your point absolutely stone dead.
  5. Linux patent pool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Mr. Ballmer, Show Us the Code

    http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2005-08-10-a.html

    http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/76034

    http://lwn.net/Articles/163038/

    http://www.patent-commons.org/

    http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/

  6. What about OIN and the Patent Commons? by caudron · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Ballmer Says Linux "Infringes Our Intellectual Property"

    What effect will the Patent Commons project have on a patent assault by Microsoft? Also, will the newly formed Open Inventions Network also affect the way Microsoft approaches this issue?

    I mean, both of those organizations essentially grant rights to their patents royalty free only to companies that don't sue F/OSS projects. If MS starts a suit, wouldn't they have to contend with both of these patent holding portfolios as well as the enormous portfolio of companies like IBM who have a vested interest in seeing Linux succeed?

    I get the feeling (though I could be dead wrong) that MS gets far more benefit from the current ambiguity and the occasional stirring, scary statement than from actually pursuing a legal remedy.

    Tom Caudron
    http://tom.digitalelite.com/

  7. The sword cuts both ways by bzipitidoo · · Score: 1 · on On Software Patent Lawsuits Against OSS

    Maybe the best restraint for now is that any legit company that threatens patent infringement lawsuits can be threatened with countersuits. Mutual Assured Destruction. Open Source has a patent commons to help with such an approach.

    Companies whose only current business is a patent portfolio (SCO, NTP) are a bit harder to nail that way. Those who think they have nothing to lose are harder to dissuade. They're the North Koreas of the software world. I would love to see SCO bankrupted, and their officers thrown in jail for racketeering, extortion, and barratry. Slime is rarely confined to one area-- probably could also get them on something else like stock manipulation or tax evasion. But nailing McBride on some unrelated charge would not be as persuasive. Anyway, even if that happened, it would only be a minor battle won that might actually make things worse, rather like nuking North Korea until it's a glowing hole in the ground, or step 1. invade Iraq 2. ??? 3. Democracry! The real victory would be disarmament, which is a lot more possible in law than in reality. Patents are entirely artificial weapons founded on no basis other than fiat, and can be neutralized in an instant by removing that fiat. Cut the ground out from under patent trolls by repealing the changes in the law (or interpretation thereof) that allowed this mess of software patents in the first place.