Open Patent License
From P2P Foundation
See: Open Patents (.org)
Early draft via http://www.openpatents.org/license/versions/opl-simple.php
Description
"The Open Patent License (still under development) is in effect a mutual nonagression pact, with a number of additions that:
- Allow companies to be mutually nonagressive with respect to:
o only a specific set of patents,
o all their software patents, or
o all their patents;
- contain language such that submitted patents are available for Open Source/Free Software use; and
- require that companies wishing to obtain the full advantages of the license with respect to software patents and more, not attempt to make an end-run around the license by using forms of IP other than patents that restrict the reimplementations of works. This would include things such as look and feel copyrights, and restrictions on reverse engineering. (The license would be useless if participants could still restrict each other from whole areas of the market using dubious non-patent forms of IP.)
More Information
Background:
