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Our Blogs Open Sauce The patent wars have begun
Our Blogs Open Sauce The patent wars have begun | The patent wars have begun |
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| by Sam Varghese | |
| Friday, 19 October 2007 | |
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Page 2 of 2 I think the suit against Novell is a blind. If it had been against Red Hat alone then it would have been difficult for Microsoft to deny its involvement with anything even remotely approaching credibility; now that Novell is also targeted, there is an argument: would we be involved in a suit against a company with which we already have a patent deal? Webbink said at least one of the same patents was recently asserted against Apple, "which decided to settle. Whether they settled because they believed the patent to be valid or because IP Innovations was not asking enough to make it worth fighting, I don't know." Is this a trend? I think so and believe that these suits are a second trial balloon, but a well-known American patent attorney isn't 100 per cent sure that it is a trend. "I don't see a trend as of yet, because these are the first actual patent claims to be made against FOSS," says Dan Ravicher, legal director of the Software Freedom Law Centre and a founder of the Public Patent Foundation. "For a trend to form, more cases would have to be forthcoming. Having said that, a trend is certainly possible, if not likely, because accusations of patent infringement are part of the territory for successful technologies. Thus, the more successful FOSS becomes, the more likely patent holders will come out of the woodwork to harass it looking for ransom." Asked how frivolous suits of this nature could be avoided without patent reform in the US, he said: "Well, we can't say this is frivolous without reviewing the merits, because to be frivolous means that the suit has no basis under the law. While I agree with your implication that such suits should be considered frivolous (i.e. not permitted under the law), the only thing to do short of changing the law is to fight each threat hard and straight ahead so that patent holders do not come to believe that FOSS is easy prey for their attacks." Ravicher has long held the belief that patents pose an equal threat to both FOSS and proprietary software - and that in some cases the FOSS genre may have less to fear. "In the long run, patent infringement claims won't stop FOSS," he said. "At most, they'll be obstacles to go over, around or through. While that will indeed cause a substantial waste of resources (including money, time and distraction), it nonetheless represents the inherent friction that patents place on the path of technological advancement." Brandishing the patent threat is an admission by Microsoft that it has run out of ideas which can be used to sell its technology. Or rather it does not see much scope of maintaining the kind of income it enjoys if competition exists. Ironically, it is the one company which has paid out the most to settle patent suits. The same company that rails against piracy is the only big tech company to be convicted of such claims -in Nantes, France, in 1994. The case will take its own sweet time to be resolved - unless the parties settle out of court, which is unlikely.
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