The Linux Foundation announces legal summits

   
  The Linux Foundation Announces First Legal Summits
  

  Industry's top open source legal experts to crack open legal issues at
exclusive Linux Foundation events 
  

  SAN FRANCISCO, Sept 12, 2007 - The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit
organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced
it will hold two legal summits over the next 12 months. These conferences
will provide the only vendor-neutral forums in which leading attorneys from
open source companies and the community can collaborate to understand and
solve legal issues surrounding Linux and open source software. The Summits
will be hosted and led by the LF's recently announced legal team Karen
Copenhaver and Andy Updegrove. 
  

  The first LF Legal Summit will be held October 25 - 26, 2007 in Boston and
will only be open to Linux Foundation members and their legal counsel, which
will include representation from HP, IBM, Intel, Novell and other leading
open source companies. At this invitation-only Summit, members will focus on
the issues of greatest common interest with regards to open standards and
licensing. Presentations and working sessions will focus on building a legal
defense infrastructure for Linux and evolving intellectual property rights
policies optimized to support open development models. 
  

  For companies and organizations interested in attending this member-only
event but who are not currently LF members, please contact
membership@linuxfoundation.org. 
  

  The next LF Legal Summit will be held in Spring 2008 and will be expanded
to include legal experts from all backgrounds to join LF member counsel in a
collaborative learning environment. This conference will fill a glaring need
for many attorneys who are looking for practical legal guidance on the
development and distribution of open source software and the legal framework
within which standards can be created to serve both proprietary and open
source software models. This Summit is expected to be an annual LF event. 
  

  "Many of today's legal conferences unnecessarily scare or confuse open
source users, developers and vendors," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of
The Linux Foundation. "The LF is able to provide a forum in which it can
bring together its members' legal counsel as well as its own legal team to
translate issues into the straight-forward matters they really are and to
bring practical education to a wider audience." 
  

  LF legal advisors Copenhaver and Updegrove will leverage the LF's neutral
forum to provide the Linux ecosystem with important information on licenses,
standards and patent issues in order to reduce any confusion and foster
further innovation and adoption of Linux. Copenhaver and Updegrove will also
work with the array of legal talent at LF member companies to coordinate
legal resources to best respond to issues facing the platform and other open
source projects. 
  

  Copenhaver is a partner in Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP ‘s Business &
Technology practice focusing on technology transfer and licensing of
intellectual property with a specific emphasis on open source business
models. Most recently, Copenhaver was executive vice president and general
counsel at Black Duck Software, Inc.
  

  Andy Updegrove is a partner and founder of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a
Boston-based technology law firm, and has represented and helped structure
more than 80 worldwide standard setting, open source, promotional and
advocacy consortia over the past 20 years. He has also represented hundreds
of both emerging as well as established technology companies, and is the
founder and editor of both the popular website www.consortiuminfo.org and the
widely-read Standards Blog. 
  

  To learn more about these Summits, please visit
https://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Legal_Summit. You can also read the
recently launched blog on open source legal matters at
www.linux-foundation.org/blogs/legal. This blog will provide updates on these
conferences as well as other open source legal matters. 
  

  About the Linux Foundation
  The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the
growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of
Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open
source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation
promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and
services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed
platforms. For more information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org. 
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