This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by James Robertson. Original Post: Forget SCO - look at the patents Feed Title: Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rssBlogView.xml Feed Description: James Robertson comments on Cincom Smalltalk, the Smalltalk development community, and IT trends and issues in general. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by James Robertson Latest Posts From Cincom Smalltalk Blog - Smalltalk with Rants

Here's the real risk that Linux faces - patent law. Companies like IBM, Sun, and Microsoft have been filing software patents pretty aggressively for years - it's not inconceivable to consider the possibility of MS deciding to make a patent claim (of course, who they would make such a claim against is an interesting problem all by itself). Take a look at this:

'Linux potentially infringes 283 patents, including 27 held by Microsoft but none that have been validated by court judgments, according to a group that sells insurance to protect those using or selling Linux against intellectual-property litigation.' Dan Ravicher, founder and executive director of the Public Patent Foundation, conducted the analysis for Open Source Risk Management. OSRM is like an insurance company, selling legal protection against Linux copyright-infringement claims. It plans to expand the program to patent protections."

Patent use as a business weapon is nothing new - I wouldn't be surprised to see this sort of thing at all.