law
In December, the Italian government issued final rules implementing a change to procurement law that now requires all public administrations in the country to first consider re-used or free software before committing to proprietary licenses. Importantly, the new rules include an enforcement... Read more
It’s a new year and all indications are that it will be a busy one for reform of abusive patent litigation.
What are some of the top events ahead in 2014?
The most-read posts this year on the Opensource.com Law channel showed a strong interest in diverse legal issues in the open source world. Many readers were reaching out for a better understanding open source licensing and related questions, such as:
Just before the shutdown of the Federal Government last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) took a first and important step to examine critical questions surrounding Patent Aggression Entities (PAEs):
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Have you ever wondered what, from a business perspective, the world of sharing, free, and open source looks like to a lawyer?
Challenging! Chaotic? Creative.
Pam Chestek is an intellectual property lawyer. She runs Chestek Legal, a practice... Read more
During the August Congressional recess, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its long-awaited study on Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs), required under the America Invents Act (AIA).
The report paints a rather grim picture of the current patent system. It reinforces the call by key... Read more
Microsoft and Nokia protest "price predation" and play at being prey.
Does no-cost software harm consumers? The FairSearch coalition thinks so, at least when it comes to Google: They say Google engages in predatory pricing when it distributes Android – a Linux-based mobile operating system –... Read more
If you guessed that they are all big in California—well, you're kinda right.
But the more significant answer is that they are part of a growing broad array of the US economy that have united together to strongly encourage Congress to address abuses of the legal system by Patent Assertion Entities (... Read more
Open source community members and most everyone else involved in software are concerned about patent lawsuits and the activities of non-practicing entities (NPEs). While we all have a sense from personal experience or by reading the news that patent litigation and NPEs are a large and growing... Read more
The flood of software patents has created an environment where companies are afraid that innovation leads to being hit by patent lawsuits. Every dollar spent fighting patent trolls and or waging patent wars is a dollar not spent researching, developing, and creating jobs. The situation is so bad... Read more
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