Although the patents have been issued, none of them have been validated by court judgments, the study says.

[]

"Anyone can file a patent, but it is not until that patent is contested in a court -- for example by the patent-holder suing someone for infringement -- that the patent can be proven," [Attorney Dan Ravicher, founder and executive director of the Public Patent Foundation,] explained.

Graciously, OSRM will offer patent-indemnification services for companies that develop Linux.

"OSRM will be charging a premium of 3 percent of the sum assured for customers who take out a patent-indemnification policy," Ravicher, who is on retainer to OSRM, told NewsFactor. "The maximum coverage available at this time for lawsuit and settlement costs is US$5 million, which means that clients would pay OSRM a premium of $150,000."

The article did not mention any of the patents that Linux may be violating.

On a side note, am I the only person who finds it interesting that OSRM commissioned the study and is also conveniently offering services to protect companies from the possible results of said study?

UrbanHippie

Philadelphia, PA

February 2004

AUG 02, 2004 09:04 PM

To hell with Microsoft.

Trevallion

Murfreesboro, TN

February 2004

AUG 02, 2004 09:08 PM

Yeah, like that double-clicking patent that microsoft has? (I heard, at least)

lame.

harden

Germany

OLD SKOOL

AUG 02, 2004 09:28 PM

Not that big news... The german city of munich is switching to linux. Its about to violate 50 EU software patents.

tretiak

San Francisco, CA

March 2003

AUG 02, 2004 09:28 PM

So, people who want your money are claiming things that have yet to be proven in court and are generally being litigated right now?

Why don't I just take money out of my wallet and set it on fire. Or order crap that won't work from Ronco.

Those fucks are useless parasites.

gaiseric

Eugene, OR

July 2003

AUG 02, 2004 10:00 PM

Yeah well I'm sure OSDN, Groklaw and the Open Source Business Consortium is going to have fun with these guys.

I'd love to see a company try and get involved with a lawsuit ala SCO right now.

Big Blue is going to put the smack down on anybody that tries to go after Linux.

Don't fear the penguin. Fear the Global MegaCorp standing behind the the penguin.

[Edited on Aug 02, 2004 by gaiseric]

DixieBootboy

Fort Worth, TX

April 2004

AUG 02, 2004 10:05 PM

thank god for *BSD

gay nonetheless

alhim

Bridgeville, PA

January 2003

AUG 02, 2004 10:13 PM

I thought this was already pretty much resolved. I guess not. Supposedly a the people admited, that just because Linux was similar in some ways, that it was code from the ground up and was not copying or infringing. Hmm.

akl

Sacramento, CA

February 2004

AUG 02, 2004 10:15 PM

sco's given up making usefull software and trying to just become a litigation machine; at least Linus and company have realized the need to further document where code comes from in future builds so that these accusations can be declared as bullshit early on without all of the idiocy surrounding a court case

Orangutan

Brighton, CO

February 2004

AUG 02, 2004 11:12 PM

Now that Linux is finally attracting a big chunk of the desktop market, big companies are running scared.

They're literally trying to dig up any dirt that they can, from "Linux supports terrorism" to massive copyright litigation in Europe.

If anyone deserves to go to court over copyright it's Microsoft.

[Edited on Aug 02, 2004 11:13PM]

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Phoenix, AZ

January 2004

AUG 02, 2004 08:55 PM

Philadelphia, PA

February 2004

AUG 02, 2004 09:04 PM

Murfreesboro, TN

February 2004

AUG 02, 2004 09:08 PM

Germany

OLD SKOOL

AUG 02, 2004 09:28 PM

San Francisco, CA

March 2003

AUG 02, 2004 09:28 PM

Eugene, OR

July 2003

AUG 02, 2004 10:00 PM

Fort Worth, TX

April 2004

AUG 02, 2004 10:05 PM

alhim

Bridgeville, PA

January 2003

AUG 02, 2004 10:13 PM

akl

Sacramento, CA

February 2004

AUG 02, 2004 10:15 PM

Brighton, CO

February 2004

AUG 02, 2004 11:12 PM