Open Source Software Author Hit by Patent Infringement Claims
From the inq, A guy who wrote an open source program to allow a computer to hook up to a model train has been hit with some nasty letters and some legal threats from a Japanese company who claims he is infringing on their patents. The project on sourceforge has not been shut down, so it looks like the author is not bowing to the pressure.
This issue is going to come up over and over in the near future so we need to be very diligent and ensure that correct precidents are set. The nature of software nowadays is that many people will be concurrently developing just about everything. If it doesn’t exist yet, wait a little while and it will. With this amount of development, patents just stifle innovation. Keeping in mind that patents were meant to encourage innovation by providing a timed monopoly to the pating party in exchange for showing how something is done.