The Community patent, which the EPO almost endorses now, is a back door to software patents

This is exactly what we were afraid of. Last month, when Microsoft sued Dutch GPS-maker TomTom on the principle that parts of Linux -- which form the guts of TomTom's device -- violate Microsoft's patents, we hoped for a quick settlement.

Microsoft Corp. was sued by Dutch navigation-device maker TomTom NV, which claims the world’s largest software maker infringes four of its patents used for automobile navigation.
The suit comes less than a month after Microsoft filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington seeking to block some of TomTom’s U.S. imports.

After having released his professional game art 'for free' for years, Daniel Cook made the usage terms clear once and for all, by selecting an attribution license, published by Creative Commons, for his works.

Now these precious 2D images can be used by open source (game) projects without ever fearing Debian's lawyers asking about DFSG compatability!

I'm getting a lot of email about Microsoft suing TomTom for alleged patent infringement, first reported by Todd Bishop on TechFlash. I've put lots of links in NewsPicks for you, and here are the two complaints, the regular complaint filed in federal court and the ITC complaint [PDFs]. I'll restrict myself for now to two quick words: Think Bilski

I've been contacted by a government agency that is seeking input on the question of what definition of openness it should adopt for that state. Obviously, it's in part about ODF/OOXML.

A group called Open ISES created an open source medical dispatch system called Cards 911, a document for use by emergency dispatchers. It gave them a script to follow when an emergency call came in. The answers would lead the dispatcher to different parts of the document using hyperlinks. The entire document was created in OpenOffice Writer.

Microsoft is suing TomTom in part because the guys from Redmond claim that TomTom's use of Linux in its navigation devices has violated three of its file-system related patents. One reason why Microsoft feels it can do this is that it already has patent cross-licensing agreements covering these patents with other Linux-using companies.