Re: Patent clauses in licenses
Andrew Suffield <asuffield@debian.org> wrote:
> Company B cannot make counterclaims from its defensive patent
> portfolio, because that would invoke the termination clause and kill
> its modified version. Company B has no practical defence against this
> lawsuit, so the modified version is killed. They have been effectively
> trapped in a double-bind.
Why are we concerned about people who patent pieces of software while
claiming that they'll only use these patents defensively? There's always
the possibility that they'll use them against free software authors in
the future. I'm not convinced that encouraging patent suits under any
circumstances is desperately important.
--
Matthew Garrett | mjg59-chiark.mail.debian.project@srcf.ucam.org
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