[TOS] Notes: learning about technology transfer and open source

Greg Dekoenigsberg gdk at redhat.com
Mon Apr 6 14:44:10 UTC 2009


On Mon, 6 Apr 2009, Rob Cameron wrote:

> Greg,
>
> I would like to work with you on this topic.   Can we form an
> interest group?

Sure.  The folks at C4 would be ready to join, I suspect.

> You mention *zero* information for TT orgs, when it comes
> to open source.    I think this applies particularly to the elephant
> in the room: patents.
>
> The main role of a TT office is:  (1) to protect intellectual property 
> arising from university research using patents and other means, and (2) 
> to license that technology to the benefit of the university.
>
> We are never going to get far with TT orgs unless we can offer
> some kind of constructive patentleft business model that respects
> both open source ideals and allows them to generate revenue
> from the patents.

There is an inherent tension between open source software development and 
patents that is very, very difficult to resolve.

That said, the Red Hat patent promise is one of the best compromises I've 
seen.  Have a look:

http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html

Is this the sort of compromise that might interest TT professionals?

--g

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