For anyone wanting a translation from lawyer-speak re patents, this article cuts through the legal jargon and gives you the meat of the discussion, as it were.

If you aren't happy with the performance of your software, the solution should be simple: Switch to different software. In practice, however, jumping ship is seldom that easy, and vendor lock-in is a reality with which most IT departments are far too familiar.

The fallout from the events leading up to the recent vote on whether or not to approve Microsoft's Office Open XML documents format as an ISO standard continues unabated, more than a month after the software maker conceded it had lost that vote.

Last month I was threatened with police intervention after taking pictures of my two-year-old. Why?

How is the third version of the GNU General Public License (GPLv3) being received four months after its official release?

It’s become an annual event. Steve Ballmer shoots his yap about how Linux and open source violate Microsoft patents. The open-source community says, “OK, show us your cards, your patents,” and Ballmer shuts up for six months or so.

Having been a Linux user for a number of years, weathering immense criticism for thinking like a normal person rather than an engineer, you might think that articles like this one would have me moving in to agree with such statements. But me being me, I choose to rebel.

I wanted to share with you a conversation I've been having with a retired EU patent attorney with hands-on experience with the US patent system as well. He was in the pharmaceutical field, where patents are All, of course, and so he presented me with a wonderful opportunity to learn. I asked him if I could please share what I'm learning with you, and he said I could.