[Fsfe-ie] Nokia, patents and the EU directive

Justin Mason jm at jmason.org
Thu May 26 21:14:01 CEST 2005


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Glenn Strong writes:
> On Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 16:39 +0100, Malcolm Tyrrell wrote:
> > > "The Patent Statement applies to Nokia's patents infringed by
> > > current official releases of the Linux Kernel and all future
> > > official releases of the Linux Kernel to the extent that Nokia has
> > > not declared new functionality embodied in such releases to be
> > > outside the scope of the Patent Statement."
> > 
> > That implies that Linux currently infringes some of Nokia patents. Is this
> > likely to be true?
> 
> It's hard to say - there's no list at the Nokia site of the specific
> patents they might be thinking of.
> 
> The announcement could certainly be read as applying to any patents
> that may currently be infringed, if there are any -- Nokia might not
> even have compiled a list (it would be a lot of work to check, I
> suspect, particularly if they hold patents with very broad claims).

They are obviously intending to imply that open source can coexist with
software patents, but I think the announcement is a great example of them
shooting themselves in the foot on this count.

  - Nokia is implying that the kernel already infringes some unspecified
    number of their patents (BAD),

  - they're saying that they're permitting current kernel source to be
    used by third parties without danger of a lawsuit from Nokia (GOOD),

  - but they're saying nothing about future kernel sources (BAD),

  - or any other open source code (BAD).

So fwiw, I read three threats there, and not a lot of niceness.  not so
friendly after all! ;)

It's a shame, because that Nokia device looks *nice* and the development
env rocks!  http://taint.org/2005/05/25/184359a.html

(PS: they also seem to imply that they have patents on their
cross-compilation development system, too.  cross-compilation for embedded
systems is pretty generic stuff going back to the 70's -- sounds like
they're really getting into the idea of trivial software patents.  but
of course, I have no idea which patents they might be or what they
claim.)

- --j.
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