Patent Liability Insurance

Bruce Alspaugh compulinkltd at gmail.com
Mon May 14 21:41:37 UTC 2007


One of the risks we see in creating an open-source project is the 
possibility of being sued for inadvertently reinventing someone else's 
patented idea.  Basic due diligence may be enough to avoid a copyright 
infringement, but we aren't sure if that is the case for patents.  
Patent searches could prove too expensive for many open-source 
projects.  The cost of defending a patent infringement suit could put 
many open-source projects out of existence.  Are there inexpensive ways 
open-source projects can mitigate the risk of inadvertently infringing a 
third-party patent? 

I understand that is possible to purchase patent liability insurance.  
How much does patent liability insurance typically cost?  How do most 
open-source projects raise the revenue to pay for this insurance?  Do 
any of the many foundations that assist open-source projects (Apache, 
Mozilla, Eclipse, FSF, etc.) offer this insurance for the projects they 
host?

Most open-source licenses I have seen disclaim any warranty of patent 
non-infringement and therefore shift the legal risk onto the users.  Are 
the users of open source software therefore expected to purchase patent 
liability insurance?

Bruce Alspaugh





More information about the License-discuss mailing list