Frequently Asked and Infrequently Answered Questions About Software Patents
Where: Portlant, OR
When: 5:00 July 19, 2012
Who: Mishi Choudhary
Mishi Choudhary (Software Freedom Law Center), Deb Nicholson (Open Invention Network), Justin Colannino (Ropes & Gray LLP)
OSCon in Portland, OR
5:00pm Thursday, 07/19/2012
Business, E145
The intense commercial competition between technology companies is driving large volumes of complex and often multi-jurisdictional patent litigation. With the de facto possibility of patenting software related ideas in various countries, free and open source software developers must understand the patent risks inherent in the development and distribution of their software. This will help them cut through the patent FUD and develop real solutions to face the risk of patent aggression with the help of a collaborative ecosystem. Further, such collective thinking will ensure that we can spend less time worrying and more time accomplishing in areas crucial to innovation i.e better code and development, better documentation and a united community.
In this session lawyers from the Software Freedom Law Center and the Community Outreach Director of Open Invention Network (OIN) will discuss the current trends in software patent aggression, will provide useful information about patents and patent liability, and will explain some means to provide community defense.
More information available at the OSCon panel page.