[hackerspaces] [OH Updates] the issue of patents

[Christopher J. Pilkington]

On Mon, Oct 03, 2011 at 03:49:18PM -0500, Bryan Bishop wrote:
> Presumably what ptlimor is thinking about is a strategy of setting up a
> defensive position, and sublicensing the patent under liberal terms for the
> benefit of the community.

Philip Zimmermann did something similar with Zfone.  Patented it
and then issued a license to anyone who wanted one, as long as
they didn't sue anyone over patents relating to the protocol
implementation, or didn't violate a certain protocol flag
regarding user notification.

His take on it was that he was fighting back the patent trolls
with their own game.

-cjp