Patent office takes notice of open source
The Patent & Trademark Office is holding meetings with the open source community in order to ensure that patent examiners have access to all available prior art in connection with assessing patent claims for novelty, see announcement. The open source community is thus taking pragmatic steps in its war on software patents.
The next meeting is on February 16 in Washington D.C. It is open to the public, but space is limited -- see details here.
Cathy Kirkman is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto, California. Her practice focuses on intellectual