[License-review] For Approval: Open Logistics License

McCoy Smith mccoy at lexpan.law
Fri Apr 15 22:53:17 UTC 2022


A few thoughts on this:
1. It's not clear how the changes in this license vs. Apache are done to
conform to European law (to the extent there is such a thing)
2. The license is governed by German law, so seems to me this really is just
a license conforming to German law, not European
3. IIRC, certain warranty disclaimers are invalid under German law, but I'm
not clear that this license addresses that particular problem.  Perhaps the
legal drafters could explain in more detail.
4. The patent clause is awkwardly written and self-contradictory. It
purports to give a limited grant that excludes a grant to combinations, but
the revocation clause which allows revocation for contributory infringement
claims is inconsistent with the scope of the grant. Also the last sentence
seems to give a unilateral right of a Contributor to revoke or not grant a
patent license, which conflicts with the grant (again, the wording is
awkward so that may not be the intent but that's what it looks like it is
doing to me).

Also, I think current practice is to disfavor licenses with choice of law
clauses (in this case, Germany).

> -----Original Message-----
> From: License-review <license-review-bounces at lists.opensource.org> On
> Behalf Of Andreas Nettsträter
> Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2022 4:38 AM
> To: license-review at lists.opensource.org
> Subject: [License-review] For Approval: Open Logistics License
> 
> Dear License Review Team,
> 
> I would like to propose the Open Logistics License for an approval.
> 
> You can find the plain text copy of the license in the attachment and the
> requested additional information in the following.
> 
> Rationale:
> This new license is intended to represent the rights and obligations of an
> established license, such as Apache v2, while respecting the differences
> between US and European law. The changes were mainly done in the
> paragraphs regarding warranty and liability.
> 
> Distinguish:
> The Open Logistics License is based on Apache v2, but has been modified to
> comply more with European law.
> 
> Legal review:
> The entire process of discussing and drafting the license was accompanied
by
> BHO Legal, a German law firm specialized in IT law. Adjustments were made
> to specifically adapt the rules on the patent license, warranty, and
liability to
> European law. The adjustments are intended to strengthen the acceptance of
> the license by European companies and minimize (perhaps only perceived)
> risks. The license was subsequently reviewed and approved by several in-
> house lawyers of larger European companies. Further details and
> justifications for the individual changes can be provided on request.
> 
> Proliferation category:
> The decision on one specific category is quite hard. The license is
compatible
> with Apache2, but was adapted to some specific European rules. The license
> will be used by a larger group of companies in the frame of open source
> development for logistics and supply chain management, but is, of course,
> not limited to this purpose. Therefore, the license can be seen as a
special
> purpose license.
> 
> I'm happy to deliver more information, if needed.
> 
> Regards from Germany
> Andreas
> 
> --
> Andreas Nettsträter
> Open Logistics Foundation





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