Diane Peters, general counsel for OSDL recently did a Q&A with ITBusinessEdge on what the OSDL patent commons project means to patent holders and software users.
With increasing frequency, institutions, companies and inventors want to formally signal to open source developers, distributors and users that software patents they hold are not a threat or inhibitor to the development or use of open source. The patent commons gives them a forum in which to do so. As for patent holders who assign their patents to OSDL, they are relieved of the administrative burdens associated with licensing their patents to various players in the open source community. Those holders are assured that the right to enforce the patent is held by an organization dedicated to promoting the development and use of open source software. And for everyone who contributes or who participates in open source, the benefit is the increase in innovation that occurs when developers invent without fear of running afoul of patents that have been donated to the Commons.Link to full text
Posted by Dave Rosenberg on August 24, 2005 03:33 PM
