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Open Source Blog
Has Microsoft lost patent power over Linux in UK?
September 21, 2007
Microsoft claims that Linux infringes 235 patents, but if it wants to fight it out in a UK court, it had better think again.
Andrew Katz, a solicitor at UK law firm Moorcrofts, points out that those patents simply don’t apply under UK law. Rather than use patents, Europeans take the far more sensible view, in his opinion, of using copyright law to protect intellectual property in software...
“The UK is in a fantastic position. The chances of coming across patent infringement is vastly less,” Katz told delegates at a London open source event last week.
Microsoft has only 51 patent applications in the UK – including failed ones – compared to 7,336 in the US, and a further 10,000-plus on application, he said.
Despite fears that open source would attract legal battles, these are unfounded in the UK. “From the legal point of view, I’m pretty delighted there isn’t that much work out there for me,” said Katz.
Now that’s not something you hear from a lawyer every day…
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