Absurd Patent Claim Leads to Worldwide Boycott on Trend Micro
It’s the 4th Friday of the month and you know it’s time for your favorite A Gentle Introduction to Linux for Non-Geeks again! For those of you who have a copy of Windows running on your PCs, how many of you are using anti-virus software? Most of you do I hope. And how many of you are actually paying for your anti-virus software? Not many I hope! Many good and free anti-virus programs for home users such as Avast, Antivir and AVG are out there for anyone to download, there really aren’t many compelling reasons why you would want to pay for them. ClamAV is another excellent and open source anti-virus program that runs both on Unix and Windows systems, scanning viruses on email gateways to prevent those nasty programs getting into your mailbox. Barracuda Networks, a company specializing in Internet network solutions that uses open source code and supports open source software projects is now being sued for distributing ClamAV by Trend Micro, using its patent claim.
And the patent claimed by Trend Micro against Barracuda Networks? Scanning SMTP and FTP gateways for viruses. Barracuda Networks didn’t use any of Trend Micro’s technologies or software. They are being sued for distributing ClamAV which scans email viruses. This is just one example of the absurdity of software patent: Ideas can be patented. A famous example is Amazon’s One-Click patent. This is not some sort of high-tech product, but an idea to let customers make online purchases using payment information customers have entered through a previous purchase. Not a revolutionary idea, but it does make a difference in customer’s online experience. Now every online shops who wants to make it easier for their customers would either have to pay a license fee to Amazon, or refrain from “violating Amazon’s idea” altogether. Not only is this putting small businesses at disadvantage, the big shot corporations are also entering a crazy patent race, patenting every little ideas they can come up with.
OK, we will have to talk about software patents some other time, because this is an important issue that concerns all of us. Trend Micro wants Barracuda Networks to either pay a license fee or stop distributing ClamAV. This is not only an attack on one single company, but the whole Free and Open Source Software community. Barracuda Networks is fighting back with prior art documents that would prove that the idea of gateway anti-virus existed before Trend Micro applied for its patent, and we as end users can fight back with boycotting all products and services from Trend Micro. Free Software Foundation (FSF) wrote: “Lawsuits like this are a threat to the entire IT community, and to free software programmers in particular. There is little that can be done to stop patent trolls from exploiting the patent and legal system for financial gain, until we put a stop to the patenting of software altogether. But there is an immediate opportunity to punish and deter trolls like Trend Micro.” If you are interested in the legal technicalities of the patent claim and the law suit, and how you can help Barracuda Networks by submitting prior art, Groklaw as always has an excellent writeup.
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