OPEN SOURCE AGREEMENTS
Any approach to intellectual asset management that entails a higher level of transparency, or greater access to information, than is usual in a proprietary setting.
An open source license is one that conforms to the latest version of the open source definition (OSD), published on the Web site of the Open Source Initiative (OSI): http:⁄⁄opensource.org⁄
Licensees must be free
- to use the software for any purpose whatsoever
- to make copies and distribute them without paying royalties to the licensor
- to prepare derivative works and distribute them, also without payment of royalties
- to access and use the source code
- to use the open source software in combination with other software, including proprietary software
Open source strategy might have advantages over a public domain when there is a proliferation of
overlapping IP rights or the field of innovation is especially competitive or litigious. While even an
open source license has the drawback of adding to the complexity of the IP landscape, failure to assert ownership over a technology before making it available for public use sometimes means that
someone else can patent the technology and pursue a proprietary exploitation strategy to the detriment of the innovator and other potential users.
In this case, patenting followed by open source licensing of an innovation is a form of defensive disclosure that may be more reliable than other defensive disclosure mechanisms as a means of
protecting against subsequent patent claims.
COPYLEFT LICENSES
A copyleft, or reciprocal, license allows the user to modify and redistribute a software program at
will. The licensee’s obligation under a copyleft license is to make relevant downstream technologies
available to all comers (including the original licensor) under the same terms as provided by the
original license. No one (including the original licensor and his or her licensees) obtains any special
privilege regarding any next-generation technology, such as a right to preview any improvements
or exclusive sublicensing rights to any improvements. The point of a copyleft license is to create
an ever-growing pool of downstream innovations that remain freely accessible to all comers.
'Generous sharers of IP freedoms'
ACADEMIC LICENSES
Academic or BSD-style license (named after the Berkeley software distribution license, the oldest
license in the OSI’s list of approved licenses). These licenses do not require users to make externally deployed improvements available to the licensor on the same terms as the original technology; in some cases, the downstream user’s only obligation is that he or she must give the
innovator credit for the innovation.
'Generous donors of IP freedoms'