On Mon, Nov 17, 2003 at 10:43:01AM -0500, Glenn Maynard wrote: > > However, this is essentially what the reciprocal patent clause is requiring. > > As part of the Apache license, you must agree not to sue any contributor > > for any of your software patents, for as long as you continue to use Apache. > > The only problem I see here is return fire: if I'm holding patents as a > defense strategy, I want to be able to use them to return fire if an > Apache contributor decides to attack me with his own patents, unrelated > to Apache.
This is only useful if you do not have a valid defense for the problem already. In other words, it is only useful as a strong-arm tactic to let your own company effectively ignore patents of others. After all, if the lawsuit filed against you has no merit, you don't need a patent portfolio to defend against it. So, its only real purpose is to let the patent holders thwart the patent law. I don't like that one bit.
