Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Intellectual Property Law Blogs -> Groklaw

Intellectual Property Law

: Groklaw

Why I Believe IBM is Free to Sue The Pants Off TurboHercules

By Pamela Jones et al.

It seems Groklaw will have to open a new category, answering Florian Mueller FUD. As you know he recently claimed that IBM had violated its public pledge not to sue Linux for patent infringement. I think he's mistaken. IBM, when it announced the patent pledge, specifically reserved the right to defend itself from attack:

"IBM has no intention of asserting its patent portfolio against the Linux kernel, unless of course we are forced to defend ourselves," said Nick Donofrio, senior vice president for technology and manufacturing, drawing applause in a speech at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo.

And in the TurboHercules story, who is suing whom? It's not IBM, folks. The complaint against IBM was filed with the EU Commission by TurboHercules. At that exact moment, did they not take themselves out from under the patent pledge's safety umbrella?

So be it.

Full post as published by Groklaw on April 08, 2010 (boomark / email).