How To Kill The Patent Threat Against Linux (Page 1 of 1)
Written by
Steve Lake
Posted on: Oct 15, 2007 at 12:59pm
Section:
Editorials
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One of the biggest clubs held over the head of Linux and Open Source as of late has been the threat of patent litigation. Microsoft has been at the forefront of this effort, boldly and defiantly claiming that Linux and Open Source infringes on approximately 235 of them. But they’re not the only one. There are hundreds of others out there who might come after Linux and the OSS community as well in the near future.
Interestingly enough, someone did. Now that the patent infringement genie is out of the bottle, is it time for Linux to start panicking? Should we suddenly start burning all our disks and run off the nearest cliff like a pack of lemmings? Not really. If anything, we should go about our lives like normal and leave this up to the legal experts to sort out. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t support Red Hat and Novell during their lawsuit, but it also doesn’t mean we have to go into a panic either.
In his Open Source advocacy blog, Stephan Walli, a one time Microsoft employee turned Open Source advocate, has recommended that open source should exercise patience and calm in dealing with this problem. I myself may be no legal expert, but I agree with him. The last thing you need to do in any legal case, especially in the case of proposed patent infringement, is to run around like a hooligan and make a total fool of yourself.
He goes on to mention how methodical IBM is in their patent cases, construing patience as a virtue to the point of being ridiculous. It’s what helped them win against SCO, and if they join with Red Hat and Novell, their legal team could be used to great effect against IP Innovation LLC, the company suing them.
The folks over at Groklaw, a group of legal gurus and sleuths ranging from amateur to professional, have even begun the work of disassembling the threat that this lawsuit presents to Linux by seeking out any prior art that might destroy the patent. Interestingly enough, they already have. But now comes the next problem. Even if this company is stopped, they’re only one flea on a very big and nasty dog. There’s plenty more where they came from. So what’s the simple solution to stopping this kind of problem from affecting Linux and Open Source?
There are two solutions to this. The first is to work hard, and starting with Microsoft, seek out every patent that pertains or could pertain to Linux and Open Source, and simply find the needed prior art and invalidate the patent. The problem with this idea is that it’s time consuming and money intensive. The community has better things to do with its time and money right now, so this idea really isn’t viable, except when all other options are exhausted and fully explored.
The second, and far simpler approach is to change patent law. There are enough people in the Linux and Open Source communities with a good solid legal background that could take up this fight, and groups like the Software Freedom Law Center, the Free Software Foundation and others could also join in and help draft the legislation that would fix the patent system and set things right. After that, we’ll need the support of the entire community to help the law get through congress and do so relatively intact. But until patent law is changed, this kind of lawsuit war will go on indefinitely.
The patent threat needs to end, and the only way that will happen is if we stand up, take action, and end it ourselves. Otherwise Linux and OSS will continue to get beaten with the legal stick of patent law over and over and over again until they can’t bleed anymore. I say, let’s take patent law into our own hands! Let’s get out there, get this legislation moving, and get it passed! This won’t end until we return sanity to the patent system!
EDIT: Updated the title to make the subject of the article a bit clearer.
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