Slashdot Mirror
Red Hat Seeks Limits on Software Patents
eldavojohn writes "RedHat went to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals asking for limits on software patents yesterday. They have not uploaded their full brief yet online, but promise to post it soon. Here's a tidbit: 'Given the litigation risk, some open source companies, including Red Hat, acquire patents for the sole purpose of asserting them defensively in the event they are faced with a future lawsuit. Red Hat also provides open source intellectual property protections through our Open Source Assurance Program that protects our customers and encourages them to deploy with confidence. Our strategy is a prudent one and mitigates the risk of patent lawsuits, but it would be unnecessary if the system itself were fixed.'"
Wow, a company that never had an original software idea in its life is against patents!!
Of course, Red Hat is the very same company that has asserted its right to ignore all patents anyway, by ironically threatening anyone who complains about their patent infringement with massive patent suits by the OIN. Red Hat is typical of OSS companies - hypocrisy taken to the n'th degree.