STWL: please comment

[Arnoud Engelfriet]

Bernhard Fastenrath wrote:
> I was trying to restrict this to intellectual property claims derived 
> from software patents. Do you think the wording is ambiguous?
 
Yes, quite so. Maybe you should use the language given in the 
Academic Free License or the IBM Public License:

AFL:
This License shall terminate automatically and You may no longer exercise
any of the rights granted to You by this License as of the date You commence
an action, including a cross-claim or counterclaim, against Licensor or any
licensee alleging that the Original Work infringes a patent. This
termination provision shall not apply for an action alleging patent
infringement by combinations of the Original Work with other software or
hardware. 

IMPL:
If Recipient institutes patent litigation against a Contributor with respect
to a patent applicable to software (including a cross-claim or counterclaim
in a lawsuit), then any patent licenses granted by that Contributor to such
Recipient under this Agreement shall terminate as of the date such
litigation is filed.

> 5. If you are owner of software patents you agree to refrain from
> any legal action based on infringement of your intellectual property 
> claims derived from __said_patents__ against users of open source 
> software and concerning open source software as defined by the Open 
> Source Initiative (OSI).

"Intellectual property claims" and "software patents" are terms
that are very hard to define. Besides you define the scope of the clause
in such a vague way that I have no idea what I'm no longer allowed to do.

The above clauses clearly spell out what is and is not permitted.

Arnoud

-- 
Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch patent attorney - Speaking only for myself
Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/