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Red Hat Makes Patent Promise

Posted by michael on from the cross-our-heart dept.

colonel writes "In a followup to an earlier story about Red Hat filing for software patents, a "promise" has appeared on RedHat's website stating that they do not intend to pursue patents against software licensed under a specific set of licenses. It's not binding in perpetuity, and some licenses are notably absent in the list of approved licences, like the LGPL. But, at least Red Hat's made their intentions clear now."

1 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. What ever happened to "technical disclosure"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    Once upon a time, some companies published journals with technical disclosure articles. They printed techniques not deemed worthy of patents. The articles were publications establishing prior art, and many have been used in court.

    If defense was the primary reason, RedHat would have started a printed technical disclosure bulletin. Another reason is to have more "assets" with fuzzy values. Pretty useful to stretch over the accounting books every quarter...