software patents

Information Age innovators need not apply. At least that's the implied message being stretched like police tape across the door of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). The agency seems fixated on eliminating the last, true, sustainable American advantage: our capacity to innovate.

Recent moves by the USPTO have resulted in a precedent-setting legal victory that now threatens software patents with extinction, putting companies like Apple and Google at risk along with the U.S. economy.

Linux vendor Red Hat announced Wednesday that it has settled patent-infringement claims filed against it by two companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The Raleigh, N.C.-based company said the settlement with Firestar Software and DataTern "protects Red Hat's customers and the open-source community" from similar suits, as well as setting a precedent "in the breadth of protection for the open-source community."

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