[Discuss] Interesting patent infringement case

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

Twin Peaks v Red Hat - Look Both Ways Before Crossing ~mw
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120913073511444
Friday, September 14 2012 @ 07:30 AM EDT
When we were little we were taught to always look both ways before
crossing the street. The same lesson should be learned by companies that
make software but choose to assert their patent(s) against others. Any
time you make a claim of patent infringement and you are a producer you
face the possibility of counterclaims unrelated to your patents, and
those claims are not limited to patent infringement claims. This is a
lesson now being learned by Twin Peaks Software in what may be the most
important GPL enforcement action to date. Twin Peaks, having sued Red
Hat and Red Hat subsidiary Gluster for patent infringement, now faces a
counterclaim for copyright infringement for including critical GPL code
in its products while failing to comply with the GPL. If Red Hat is
successful on that claim and obtains a permanent injunction, which it is
requesting, Twin Peaks could be out of business.

Six months ago Twin Peaks launched a patent infringement suit against
open source Red Hat and its recently acquired subsidiary, Gluster, maker
of the Gluster file system. GlusterFS is incorporated into the Red Hat
Storage Server.

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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