Liability of Users for Patent Infringement
Liability of Users for Patent Infringement
Posted Apr 22, 2011 2:44 UTC (Fri) by orcmid (guest, #74478)In reply to: Google Linux servers hit with $5m patent infringement verdict (The Register) by mikov
Parent article: Google Linux servers hit with $5m patent infringement verdict (The Register)
Yes, it means that. If this is in an essential part of the kernel, every use of Linux distribution with such a kernel would constitute an infringing operation.
In the commercial world, providers of hardware-software systems tended to hold their customers harmless from such suits and would defend them.
Google was sued as an user of Linux. (There's a kind of karma here with regard to Google not providing protection to hardware providers that embed Android, but that is an entirely-separate matter, seems to me.)
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