Celebrating 20 Years of IP Excellence

Open Source Software (OSS)

Intellectual Property, Open Source and Intelligent Automobiles

  License: Creative Commons — Attribution-No Derivatives 4.0. Open Source Software (OSS) is today an integral part of every software development project, and there are open source projects for almost every utility and functionality. Software relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not an exception, and there are several AI linked open source initiatives targeting the automotive sector. From autonomous vehicles to telematics, there are many open source projects addressing different aspects of mobility. Some examples of specific AI projects for the…

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Patent Risks in Open Source – Lesson’s from Google’s Story

This post was first published on April 25, 2011. Risks inherent in use of open source software from patents have finally seen the light of the day. Patent risks in use of open source software came to be  a reality with filing of patent suits by companies like Firestar, Microsoft and so on against open source businesses and users. However, none of the cases went the full distance earlier as they were settled out of court. The story is however different…

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Marrying Open Standards and Open Source

This post was first published on 16th February, 2011. Standards can either be open or closed based on the manner of their creation and their accessibility to the public. A standard that is created through public or community participation without any restrictions and can be used or implemented by any one are called open standards. A standard that is developed by and limited to one or more persons is a closed standard. All proprietary standards are closed standards. The basic tenets of…

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Model to Combat Patent Risks in Open Source Software

This post was first published on May 10, 2010. Professors at University of California Berkeley are proposing a defensive licensing scheme to fight patent risks in development and use of open source software. In one of my earlier posts, I wrote about the risk of patent infringement with respect to use of open source software and steps to mitigate the same. The model being proposed by Professor Jason Schultz and Professor Jennifer Urban may play an important role in minimizing patent…

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Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) – Version 1.0

First Publication Date: 3rd March 2009 The CDDL was formulated by Sun Microsystems for development and distribution of some of its software. The license is considered to be one of the most popular licenses. Some of the softwares released under CDDL include, OpenSolaris, NetBeans IDE and RCP, GlassFish, JWSDP and so on.Rights Any person receiving a software under CDDL gets a world wide, non-exclusive and royalty-free license over the software. The license grants the following rights over the software: Copyrights The…

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Google’s use of Java APIs in Android – fair use?

  The District Court of the Northern District of California held last week that Google's use of 37 Java APIs of Oracle does not give rise to copyright infringement liability because it is fair use. On remand from the Federal Circuit, in a Jury trial, Google's use of Java APIs and around eleven thousand lines of code was held to be fair use as it is meant to promote inter-operability and compatibility between programs. You may read our earlier post for…

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The featured image shows the logo of google. To read more on the google versus oracle dispute click here.

Is use of Java APIs by Google Fair Use?

In 2010, Oracle sued Google for copying 37 Java packages, 8 specialized Java security  packages, and a routine called “rangeCheck" in its Android operating system. Oracle claimed in the suit that Google is liable for infringing two of its patents in the software and that Google is also liable for copyright infringement for literally copying the code. The suit was filed in a California District Court. Oracle claimed damages to the tune of nine billion dollars in the suit. …

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