Are there examples of proprietary software customers who have had to pay for IP (intellectual property) violations?
I think many people in the proprietary world will take a cue from SCO and that we are approaching a very bad time regarding software patents. We have an overload of improperly issued, invalid, non-invention software patents that will be prosecuted aggressively against people who can’t really afford to defend themselves. The problem is worst for the open source developer, but it’s also a problem for small and medium-sized businesses. If the open source developer gets sued, he probably can’t afford to be in court very long. He’ll probably have to settle. In the one example I have of this so far, the developers signed their copyrights over to the plaintiff and signed a covenant that said they wouldn’t develop similar software. The problem is that (U.S. law) says you can be sued under patent law for certain activities, including use. So legally, a patent holder can sue the purchaser of a product for patent infringement in the product. It could be that a judge might throw that sort of case
