[Discuss] patent pools for defense of open source contributors

[Matt Maier]

Can we apply this same framework to protect open source hardware? It seems
like patents are even more important to the hardware side of open source,
since they're technically the only thing that speaks to control of the
physical items.

http://archive.oreilly.com/pub/post/patent_pools_offer_open_source.html

"The two patent pool projects concerned here--open source's shining knights
in armor--are the Patent Commons Project <http://www.patent-commons.org/> and
the Open Invention Network <http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/>. The
basic idea is to use the patent system the way companies and inventors have
used it from the start: to cross-license patents and use patents
defensively so they aren't sued out of existence"

Until now, there was no prize for doing open source; you didn't get back
anything in return...Now it's different. Open source your software, and you
get protection. Individual developers or small software houses that always
had to worry about patent lawsuits can now worry a bit less--but only if
they play the open-source game...Managers who always asked "What do we get
for open-sourcing besides good will?" now have a concrete answer: there
will be a lot of legal muscle at their disposal."

"If large legal resources are available to anyone open-sourcing his or her
software, it suddenly becomes critical to define open source
precisely...Amazingly, I have not been able to find anywhere--on the web
sites of the Patent Commons Project and the Open Invention Network or among
any of the commentators--a definition of open source."
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