U.S. Patent Reform Bill: An Interview with Mark Webbink (O'ReillyNet)

[Posted September 19, 2005 by ris]

Richard Koman talks with Mark Webbink, deputy general counsel for intellectual property at Red Hat, about the state of patents, the patents commons idea, and the patent reform legislation working its way through Congress, on O'ReillyNet. "Defending a patent claim costs about $2 million per side, per claim. That may be, as eBay deputy general Jay Monahan puts it, "an unfortunate cost of doing business," but that's not a cost most open source projects can afford. Granted, patent trolls will go after companies with deep pockets, but companies that compete with open source may see a strategy in using patent claims to simply shut down a small company."