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Black Duck patents OSS software license conflict analysis
,----[ Quote ]
| Bradley Kuhn, the technology director of
| the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC)
| expressed dismay this week after learning
| that Black Duck Software was granted a
| patent that covers software methods for
| detecting and resolving open source
| software licensing conflicts. Kuhn, who
| plays a major role in the SFLC's GPL
| enforcement efforts, contends that Black
| Duck's patent is far from novel and
| describes techniques that he has been using
| for licensing compliance analysis for over
| a decade.
|
| Black Duck was founded in 2002 with the aim
| of providing automated solutions for
| tracking the provenance of source code in
| applications. The company's first product,
| called Protex, reached the market at a time
| when the software industry was being
| confronted by emerging legislation and
| high-profile litigation that raised
| concerns about software licensing
| practices. At the time, the ill-fated SCO
| trial was just starting to heat up and
| there were still unanswered questions about
| whether the newly-passed Sarbanes-Oxley Act
| would require more rigorous internal audits
| of software licensing. Black Duck turned
| the industry's fear over these issues into
| a marketing tool and became one of the
| leading vendors in the compliance
| management market.
`----
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/02/black-duck-patents-software-license-conflict-analysis.ars
Webmap Technologies signs license agreement with Microsoft
,----[ Quote ]
| Webmap Technologies, LLC has entered into a
| license agreement with Microsoft
| Corporation, a developer and licensor of
| software solutions. Webmap Technologies is
| a subsidiary of Acacia Research
| Corporation, through its operating
| subsidiaries, acquires, develops, licenses
| and enforces patented technologies. All the
| companies are based in the US.
`----
http://www.tradingmarkets.com//news/stock-alert/msft_webmap-technologies-signs-license-agreement-with-microsoft-725601.html
This is bull:
Microsoft joins network designed to counter 'patent trolls'
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp., a technology giant that
| wins thousands of patents every year, has
| joined RPX Corp., a start-up network aimed
| at aggregating intellectual property to
| shield its members from what are known as
| "patent trolls."
`----
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/microsoft-joins-group-to-counter-patent-trolls-2010-01-27?reflink=MW_news_stmp
RPX is a racket.
Software Majors Sign On to Patent Fund
http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202441789614&Software_Majors_Sign_On_to_Patent_Fund
Tech Giants' New Way to Thwart Patent Suits
,----[ Quote ]
| Frustrated by litigation costs, Microsoft,
| Sony, and Nokia are paying third-party
| patent acquirers such as RPX to fend off
| patent lawsuits
`----
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2010/tc2010021_382392.htm
Dallas firms specialize in tricky, lucrative terrain of patent law
,----[ Quote ]
| That's what Melsheimer of Fish & Richardson
| PC's Dallas office found in getting a
| $511.6 million verdict against Microsoft
| reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for
| the Federal Circuit. Plaintiff Alcatel-
| Lucent initially sought $50 billion in
| damages.
|
| The ruling ended a seven-year odyssey
| featuring seven different cases and three
| jury trials. One case hinged on the value
| of a particular feature of Microsoft's
| Outlook electronic mail program. Melsheimer
| and his team convinced the appeals court
| that the feature wasn't part of Outlook's
| appeal to customers, hence no damages.
`----
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-patent_31bus.ART.State.Edition1.3ccb54a.html
Tech Giants' New Plan To Fight Patent Trolls
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft has signed up for "patent
| insurance" with a startup called RPX, which
| buys up patents that could be used against
| its clients. Microsoft says this approach
| can save the industry billions of dollars
| by thwarting the industry's controversial
| "patent trolls" and their litigation. But
| how much can a firm like RPX do to prevent
| litigation?
`----
http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Tech-Giants-Fight-Patent-Trolls/story.xhtml?story_id=0030007745GU
After phylogenetics Microsoft patents personal data mining
http://sciblogs.co.nz/fisheye-perspective/2010/02/06/after-phylogenetics-microsoft-patents-personal-data-mining/
Related:
Palamida: Rival snitched open-source database
,----[ Quote ]
| A day later, Palamida cried foul. "After two days of intense investigation,
| we have confirmed that most of our database has been copied directly--word
| for word and misspelling for misspelling, with very few original additions to
| our initial work," said Palamida spokeswoman Melisa LaBancz-Bleasdale,
| pointing the "blatant plagiarism" finger at Black Duck.
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-13580_3-9803799-39.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
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