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Patent clauses in software licenses
Revision as of 11:37, 10 January 2010 by Steelpillow (talk | contribs) (→Related pages on {{SITENAME}}: update link)
Some software licences contain clauses which place requirements on patent holders who participate in distributing that software. These can be useful, but only in some narrow cases.
Contents
Limits to effectiveness
- These clauses only apply to patent holders who distribute the software which uses this licence.
- The stronger the clause, the less likely it is that dangerous patent holders will distribute software that uses the licence.
GNU GPL v2
Dan Ravicher argues that GPLv2 includes an implicit patent grant.[1][2]
GNU GPL v3
Section 10:
- "you may not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of rights granted under this License, and you may not initiate litigation (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling, offering for sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it."
Also, section 12, which is very similar to GPLv2's section 7.
Related discussions
- From the 25th minute onward, Bradely Kuhn explains GPLv3 section 11
- http://fsfe.org/projects/gplv3/brussels-rms-transcript.en.html#retaliation
LGPL 2.1
- Discussion about Google's Chrome using LGPL'd library and having a patent licence, Chris DiBona gives Google's position
Apache License
Section 3:
- "If You institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed."
Mozilla Public License
Section 8:
- (excerpt) "...if You initiate litigation by asserting a patent infringement claim (excluding declatory judgment actions) against Initial Developer or a Contributor (the Initial Developer or Contributor against whom You file such action is referred to as "Participant") alleging that..."
Related pages on ESP Wiki
- Duds and non-solutions
- Free software - practically all discussion of such clauses is in relation to free software licences