[ideas] Open Source version of Patent

[hyapadi]

As we know, in this world there are copyright as well as copyleft.

How about patent? Isn't nice to have something like "copyleft" of the patent? Open Patent?

As far as noticed, usually an open source project provide GPL/open source license as well as providing commercial license.


With that basis, my idea for patent is

A patent that would required the software vendors to open-source their software that violate the patent, or else they have to pay royalties to the patent owner ( just as the "normal" patent did )

I think this kind of patent would benefit the open source community as well as benefiting the open source developers.

Well, its just a rough ideas though. I think this will be a good idea if can be implemented successfully, rather than fighting against patent alone.

What do you think?

[Bachstelze]

As we know, in this world there are copyright as well as copyleft.

No. The term "copyleft" is just an invention and has no legal value. Besides, any "copyleft" thing is copyrighted. If it's not copyrighted, it's called public domain.

[az]

Only very few projects use multiple licensing. Multiple licensing is usually a sign of a smaller commitment to the community. You will notice that the projects with the greatest community support (and therefore strength and agility) are the ones which are distributed under a single license.

Everybody likes the licensing of software to be clear and as simple as possible.

A patent is really different from copyright. Copyright is more like a description of the contract between two people, the author and the recipient. A patent is a legal tool that has been defined by the author and the patent office of a particular country. A patent is more like a deed of ownership rather than a contract.

You can use copyright to define how you want to share your work. Copyright law describes what your rights are and you are free to claim all those rights or only a few of them. That's what free software licenses do. So when the user obtains the software, they agree to the terms of the license.

You can't do that with patents since the patent is not a contract between the author and the recipient. I don't think you can define the consequences of violating the patent from within the patent like you can do in a contract.

[hyapadi]

So it is legally not possible to create something like "Open Patent"? Too bad. I hope there is something can be done similarly to this idea.

Regarding the multiple license, I agree with your statement. But somehow open source with commercial license would be better than proprietary only.