Software Patents

[Frank Warmerdam]

Folks,

One issue I think we may need to contemplate and take a position on at some
point is Software Patents in so far as they threaten our projects and
open source projects in general.   The following is a sort of decent review
of the topic currently in the news due to a couple of lawsuits affecting
open source organizations:

   http://technocrat.net/d/2006/6/30/5032

I will say that while I would personally prefer to see software patents
declared invalid worldwide, I think when the foundation takes a position on
it we ought to be more modest.  Something along the lines of our feeling that
software patents, if they exist, should have a high bar for "non-obviousness"
and that the patent office needs to take a much stricter approach to what
originally gets approved.

I think we have enough on our plate that we should not yet take on any sort
of advocacy role against software patents, but we might revisit the issue in
6-12 months.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGF, http://osgeo.org