Re: Negotiating for using Royalty Free patents

[James Henstridge <james daa com au>]

Daniel Veillard wrote:

>  You basically cannot Licence a patent for free software project,
> it's not only an ethic issue, licencing the patent means defining
> a framework for which using that patent is granted, and unless that
> patent licence has no restriction (basically releasing it) that mean
> people outside of that framework cannot reuse the code freely. This
> is a problem.
It is possible for a company to allow their patent to be used in some 
free software while still being able to license it for use in closed 
products.

Raph Levien has made a grant for use of his patents for use in software 
released under the GPL:
   http://www.levien.com/patents.html

With this grant, it is okay to use his patents in GPL software since it 
doesn't impose any additional terms on top of those in the GPL.  People 
who wish to use his patents in non-GPL software would require a 
different license.

That said, I don't see Apple licensing the patents mentioned for use in 
Gnome/GPL software any time soon.

James.

--
Email: james daa com au
WWW:   http://www.daa.com.au/~james/