A new way to end the patent madness
Defensive Patent License could make life much less complicated for developers of new technology
The new Defensive Patent License (DPL), launched this week by two UC Berkeley law professors, offers an improved way for businesses -- especially small businesses -- to protect themselves from patent attacks. Over time, it may also disarm patent trolls by reducing the supply of "weaponized" patents.
The DPL is an idea whose time has come. Patents, especially software patents, have become a running sore for the tech industry. If widely adopted -- that's a big "if" -- the DPL could offer a cure that provides special benefit to the open source community.
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Defusing patent aggression with DPL
What if patents could be "de-weaponized"? Jason Schultz and Jennifer Urban have been honing an idea to deal with this problem for several years, according to a video lecture where they discuss it. Their release of the DPL this week is significant event.
Like all the best ideas, it's simple enough. As a business, you publish a statement that you are henceforth licensing any and all patents you own under the DPL and will make such licensing a condition of sale of any of your patents. From that point, without needing to enumerate the patents you own or negotiate terms with any other business, you are entitled to use all patents ever licensed under the DPL by all other businesses. The catch? You may never again use patents offensively against other signatories of the DPL. By this simple step, all patents owned by all DPL signatories are "de-weaponized."
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http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/new-way-end-the-patent-madness-195611
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