Is there a large risk to DoD contractors that widely-used OSS violates enforceable software patents?
Typically not, though the risk varies depending on their contract and specific circumstance. Note, however, that this risk has little to do with OSS, but is instead rooted in the risks of U.S. patent infringement for all software, and the patent indemnification clauses in their contract. It is difficult for software developers (OSS or not) to be confident that they have avoided software patent infringement in the United States, for a variety of reasons. Software might not infringe on a patent when it was released, yet the same software may later infringe on a patent if the patent was granted after the software’s release. Many software developers find software patents difficult to understand, making it difficult for them to determine if a given patent even applies to a given program. Patent examiners have relatively little time to review each patent, and do not have effective access to most prior art in software, which may lead them to grant patents for previously-published inventions o
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- Is there a large risk to DoD contractors that widely-used OSS violates enforceable software patents?
