News: Red Hat CEO decries software patents
Category:
Open Source,
General News
Posted: May 22, 2007 06:48PM
Author:
LoArmistead
c|net - Software patents are slowing innovation, Red Hat Chief Executive Matthew Szulik said Tuesday. "In the last 30 years, we've continued to see patents really being a challenge to innovation. The industry moves much faster than a remedy process," Szulik told hundreds of attendees at the Open Source Business Conference here. "There is very little empirical evidence that builds a correlation between patents and innovation." In an interview after the speech, Szulik said software patents "absolutely" retard the pace of innovation. But he stopped short of calling for their abolition, as have some of his colleagues in the free and open-source software movement. Instead, he urged reform of the patent process.
