OSDL Says Patent Threat to Linux is Receding

blacksilver writes "The chief executive of the Open Source Development Labs (ODSL) has said that the threat facing Linux from software patent-infringement claims has receded. From the article: 'Lots of people who hold a lot of patents have looked at this issue, and nothing's come of it ... There's always been a suspicion that some of them [the alleged infringing patents] were held by Microsoft, so this could be an issue ... our customer advisor people speak to people, including major customers who run both Windows and Linux, and they say it's not an issue,'"

Comments

283 Patents?

[thebdj]

So they say that Linux potential violates 283 software patents? Now I do not know that they went through every software patent, but that is WELL below the number of issued software patents I am sure, so was there really much of a threat anyway? Besides that there is always the potential of any patents being invalidated in court even if it ever happened.

I do not see why a corporation would be scared from Linux by this potential though. You are talking about a patent infringement that would affect the companies and people distributing Linux and not the people using it. I really think everyone sort of got scared about this at first, but realized the threat was not as bad as everyone was originally stating.

Re:283 Patents?

[Red Flayer]

"You are talking about a patent infringement that would affect the companies and people distributing Linux and not the people using it."

It could definitely affect users as well as distributors. Should licensing to a distributor be denied, those users could get screwed by not having any support for their distro.

Not only that, but IP rights can be enforced on the end user as well as the distributors, since they are also using the IP without a license.

Re:283 Patents?

[Red Flayer]

Yes, actually, they could. But it's not worth the cost of doing so, both in terms of litigation and in terms of collection. It's also hard to prove damages when the end user is not involved in reselling the technology.

US Code, pulled from the wikipedia article on patent infringement (emphasis mine): "A person directly infringes a patent by making, using, offering to sell, selling, or importing into the US any patented invention, without authority, during the term of the patent. 35 U.S.C. 271(a)"

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent_infringement

Re:283 Patents?

[nsayer]

So on your argument NTP can sue every user of one of RIM's Blackberry devices?

EOLAS can sue everyone using M$ Internet Explorer?

Yup. You'll recall that SCO sued an end-user of Linux. This caused at leasat one outfit to offer to indemnify their customers (that is, to pay for their defense and any damage judgements should they be sued).

Re:Pantents usage..

[Rattencremesuppe]

Maybe you shoudl be able to patent, the hole source code of a program,

Why? The whole source code is already protected by copyright

Re:Pantents usage..

[bdcrazy]

Two separate entities can copyright the same thing, as long as it was made independantly, there is no copyright violation. There can be only one patent holder for that thing, and the first to file usually wins
and can rake in the money from the other. (Look up Alexander Graham Bell vs Elisha Gray)

I'm not making a judgement on whether software patents are good or bad,
just a way of looking at the difference between them and why some companies
think they are better.