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| As a result of our investment in innovation, Microsoft has created a large,
| diverse portfolio of intellectual property (IP) that is now available for
| licensing. This portfolio includes source code, schemas, protocols, and
| documentation as well as associated copyrights, trademarks, patents and trade
| secrets. Our policy is to license this IP under commercially reasonable and
| nondiscriminatory terms.
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http://www.premiercercle.com/ips2008/partners.php
Software Patents and Microsoft
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| The US (and Australian) more liberal position on patents for software has
| traditionally differed from the UK where software patents are related to
| thought processes, which are not patentable. The Boards of Appeal of the
| European Patent Office (EPO) has allowed companies to patent computer
| programs if they can demonstrate some sort of innovative technical effect.
| This may for example be something like increased memory access.
|
| The case law of the EPO Boards of Appeal is not binding on the EPO member
| states and different national courts acting on different cases may take a
| different view of patentability. The position on software patents in the UK
| has been recently considered by the High Court and UK Intellectual Property
| Office (UKIPO).
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http://www.lawdit.co.uk/reading_room/room/view_article.asp?name=../articles/9098-software-patents-and-microsoft.htm
Bruce Perens: A Big Change for Open Source
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| Jacobsen's case against Katzer is ongoing, although this most important
| appeal is completed. He has not yet convinced the judge that Katzer lied on
| his patent application, but what if he does? There has been no criminal
| prosecution of anyone for lying ("perjury") on a patent application since
| 1974, when the patent office eliminated its enforcement department.
|
| Contrast that to what the defendant in a suit brought by the holder of a
| bogus patent faces: between $3 and $5 million dollars in legal fees per case.
| Without the beneficent legal team that came to Jacobsen's aid, winning such a
| case is so expensive that it's really losing.
|
| The current system of software patents in the United States makes it too easy
| for the Katzers of the world to come after others for big bucks, even when
| there is significant doubt regarding the validity of their own patents. The
| poor defendants have to spend millions just to prove that the patent being
| pursued against them isn't valid, bankrupting themselves in the process.
|
| The patent holders have little prospect of punishment when they game the
| system. That's a system with no sign of balance. We need to restore justice
| to the patent system, and we also need to take a good look at the motivation
| for software patents, which many economists and others feel do more to hurt
| innovation than to promote it.
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http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3775446_1
Recent:
Perens new crusade is patent law
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| Perens said in a recent interview that the current system makes it too easy
| for patent trolls to sue, even when their patents may be bogus.
|
| We need to restore justice to the patent system, and we also need to take
| a good look at the motivation for software patents, which many economists
| and others feel do more to hurt innovation than to promote it.
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http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2952
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