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Defensive Patent License

Revision as of 09:18, 9 October 2012 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (more informative intro)

Red alert.png What this entry documents is not a solution.
This practice may be ineffective or useless in the long term.
ESP's position is that abolition of software patents is the only solution.


The Defensive Patent License (DPL) is a proposed form of patent non-aggression pact. As of late 2012, the DPL has not been finalised and is not yet seeking members/users.

The project is being worked on by Jason Schultz and Jennifer Urban, two law professors at UC Berkeley. It was first publicly discussed at a conference on May 7th 2010.

Overview

None of the details are finalised, but points being discussed include:[1]

  1. Member companies would have to commit all their patents. Not just a chosen set, not just the patents of one department/affiliate of the company. (This aspect is still the subject of a lot of discussion)
  2. Members give all other members an irrevocable licence to freely use their patents.
  3. Members can leave, but this would not cancel the licences already granted during their membership.

Related pages on ESP Wiki

External links

References