Re: A look at the SCO complaint

Re: A look at the SCO complaint

Posted Mar 9, 2003 16:33 UTC (Sun) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814)
Parent article: A look at the SCO complaint

Well, although I really don't like SCO and this complaint of theirs, IBM is certainly not at nice company either!

Here is a quote:
IBM's patent department is actively lobbying Europe to legalise software patents. They have invested millions in fighting example cases to leading European lawcourts such as the EPO's Technical Boards of Appeal and the German Federal Court in order to soften and eventually remove European restrictions on patenting software. They have also threatened European politicians that IBM might close down local facilities if software patents are not legalised in Europe. IBM has also prevented the US government from conducting studies on the value of software patents for the national economy. In the wake of the Opensource hype, IBM's rhetoric has become relatively moderate, but nonetheless it is supported by real pressure. IBM has acquired approximately 1000 European software patents whose legal status is currently unclear. Given the great number of software patents in IBM's hands, IBM is one of the few software companies who may have a genuine interest in software patentability. Once software patents become assertable in Europe, an IBM tax of several hundered million EUR may be levied on European software companies.

The quote is from this site.

As all sane persons know, Linux and software patents aren't exactly the best combination. Basically, I don't feel that sorry for IBM as long as their are pro software patents. If they wanted to, they could probably do exactly the same thing today as SCO has done and their claims would probably also have a much better chance of victory in a court than SCO's claims.

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