Maybe Software Patents Won't Kill FOSS After All

Roblimo writes "Lawrence Rosen, attorney for the Open Source Initiative, doesn't seem to be as worried about software patents' effects on open source development as some Slashdot readers. In this article he says, 'Don't be too paranoid about the patent problem. It's a real problem, but not a catastrophe. Any patent owner that tries to assert its patents against open source software has many hurdles to leap before the royalty checks start to arrive.'"

Comments

Re:It's not about the royalty checks

[hgolden]

pongo, patents allow the patent holder to prevent the end user from using the patented invention. It is a violation to use a patented invention without a license from the patent holder.

Note that this is different from how copyrights work. Once you have a copy of a copyrighted work, you have (at least in the United States) certain "fair use" rights.

So, in theory at least, a patent holder can sue an end user to prevent him/her from using the patented invention without a license, and the patent holder can obtain an injunction from a court to forbid use of the patented invention by an unlicensed end user.