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Ballmer Misrepresented Linux Patent Study.

eWeek: Author of Linux Patent Study Says Ballmer Got It Wrong. When Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he wasn't really saying that Linux violates more than 200 software patents, Microsoft followed up by saying Ballmer was only citing findings from a controversial study done this summer by OSRM (Open Source Risk Management), a risk-mitigation consultancy. The study claimed that Linux has been found to potentially violate 283 software patents. The author of that report, however, doesn't see things the way Ballmer does at all.

The bigger story in all this is the disaster that the patent system has become. The U.S. Patent & Trademark Office is notorious for issuing bogus, poorly researched patents, and then letting the courts settle things.

Until Congress addresses the situation (oh, sure), innovation will suffer. [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
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