December 10th, 2008
File your open source code with Linux Defenders
Back in the day it was assumed by writers that they needed to file their work with the Library of Congress to prove copyright.
Not so. But if you want to prove your authorship of open source code and protect it from patent trolls, perhaps you should file. With Linux Defenders.
Linux Defenders is the creation of the Open Innovation Network, a group that includes Red Hat, IBM, Novell and others interested in protecting open source rights.
Its mission. To keep patent trolls from laying claim to your code after it’s written, by tracking its authorship.
All you need do is register your code with the site and the OIN members will get that information to IP.Com, a database the folks at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office themselves use to determine whether something has been invented.
Once the code is established as your prior art the troll has nowhere to go. Case closed.
Linux Defender is also a big supporter of Peer-to-Patent, a community patent review system created in cooperation with the USPTO to open up the patent review process.
Is it possible that these actions, combined with recent court decisions, make a patent reform law unnecessary?
We’ll ask.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983. You can follow Dana on Twitter. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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