Patent retaliation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Patent retaliation clauses are included in several free software licenses, including version 3 of the GNU General Public License. The goal of the clause is to discourage the licensee (the user/recipient of the software) from suing the licensor (the provider/author of the software) for patent infringement, by immediately terminating the license upon the initiation of such a lawsuit.
Contents |
[edit] "Weak" Patent retaliation
In "weak" patent retaliation, the litigation over patent infringement is restricted to patents pertaining to the licensed software.
[edit] "Strong" Patent retaliation
"Strong" patent retaliation does not include the same limitation: if the licensee sues the licensor for infringement of any patent at all, the license is terminated.
[edit] Patent Retaliation in Free Software Licenses
The Free Software Foundation included a weak patent retaliation clause in version 3 of the GPL, originally drafted in January 2006. The intent is to prevent users of free software from patenting their improvements upon the software, and then suing the original developers if subsequent upgrades to the free version infringe the patent.
