Patent Liability Insurance

[Bruce Alspaugh]

On 5/14/07, Matthew Flaschen <matthew.flaschen at gatech.edu> wrote:
>
> Dave Crossland wrote:
> > You may find http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org of use :-)
>
> This would protect individual developers (which can also be accomplished
> by a separate non-profit or corporation) but then a lawsuit would just
> destroy the conservancy instead.  That can't be regarded as a true
> solution, in my opinion.
>
> Matt Flaschen
>

It might not solve the problem entirely, but Dave does have a point.  I'm
looking at the bios of the Board of Directors for the Conservancy and the
Software Freedom Law Center that sponsors it.  Presumably, if the
conservancy were sued for an inadvertent patent violation by one of the
member projects, they would have to take on some very powerful and respected
intellectual property lawyers.  Few open-source projects could afford to
have them on retainer.  It effectively raises the stakes for any company
that might try to sue.

Bruce
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