IBM
IBM is one of the biggest lobbyist for software patents (along with Microsoft), as can be seen in their amicus brief for the EPO's software patent consultation in April 2009.
IBM is however against business method patents (such as the patent at the heard of the in re Bilski case in the USA).[1]
For information about IBM's 2008 amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the USA regarding Bilski, see Fake representatives of free software#IBM.
Contents
Selection of patents held
- Real-Time Validation of Text Input Fields Using Regular Expression Evaluation During Text Entry, Slashdot story, 2009
Patent pledges
- August 2004: IBM pledges not to use its patents against the kernel Linux
- January 2005: Pledge of 500 patents to free software community
TurboHercules, 2010
In April 2010, IBM sent a letter to TurboHercules with a "non-exhaustive" list of patents which a project such as TurboHercules's project would infringe. Some took this as an act of aggression against a free software project, but on the other hand, IBM did not file suit and the letter did not say that TurboHercules does infringe those patents.
- IBM breaks the taboo and betrays its promise to the FOSS community, by Florian Mueller
- Glyn Moody's article on the topic
- IBM's letter, listing patents
Bilski submissions
In the 2008 Bilski case, IBM submitted a pro-swpat brief.[1]
Key people
- Fritz Teufel, patent department head of IBM in Germany and Europe
Related pages on ESP Wiki
- Open Invention Network - of which IBM is a member
- Fake representatives of free software#IBM
