What is Opera’s position on patents and intellectual property rights?
Opera does not believe innovation in the software industry is protected or encouraged by software patents. In particular, Opera actively works to ensure that software patents do not stand in the way of interoperability. As a highly innovative company, Opera comes up with many ideas and concepts that are patentable. In some situations, Opera applies for software patents as a way to protect itself from attacks by other aggressive patent holders. Opera works wherever possible to ensure those patents are made available to support open standards, for example through the W3C’s Royalty Free Patent Policy, OMTP’s “Turin Rules”, and other initiatives seeking to ensure an open development environment for all.
