Emily Lynema <[log in to unmask]>
> A colleague approached me this morning with an interesting question that I
> realized I didn't know how to answer. How are open source projects in the
> library community dancing around technologies that may have been patented
> by vendors? We were particularly wondering about this in light of open
> source ILS projects, like Kuali OLE, Koha, and Evergreen. I know OLE is
> still in the early stages, but did the folks who created Koha and Evergreen
> ever run into any problems in this area? Have library vendors historically
> pursued patents for their systems and solutions?

In short: bad patent laws are a problem, but not unique to FOSS.

I think we're dancing around technologies that may have patents in the
same ways that all developers do: basically, we avoid famously
patented tech and try to use well-known libraries as much as possible
(safety in numbers, at the cost of chilling some innovation), but
hoping that we don't pass too close to any submarine patents.

The worrying one I've seen recently has been 3M and SIP.  It took
quite a few rounds on the SIP 3 message boards before (as I understand
it) we were assured that no patents held by 3M would necessarily be
infringed by implementing SIP 3.

3M accused Envisionware but I don't remember the detail or know the
current situation.

I probably ask more questions about this than many, even though I work
for a software developer and am fortunate to work in a country where
mathematics - which includes software - is explicitly excluded from
patents.

Hope that informs,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and LMS developer, statistician.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha