PUBPAT challenges Opsware patent
p2pnet.net news:- USPTO has been asked to review and revoke a patent preempted by Open Source Projects.
PUBPAT News: Opsware Remote Computer Management Patent Challenged by PUBPAT
New York, NY — February 12, 2007 — The Public Patent Foundation (”PUBPAT”) announced today that it has filed a formal request with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to review a patent held by Opsware Inc. (NASDAQ: OPSW) related to remote computer management that was preempted by the work of open source projects. In its filing, PUBPAT submitted prior art that the Patent Office was not aware of when reviewing the application that led to the issuance of the patent (U.S. Patent No. 7,124,289), described in detail how the prior art invalidates the patent and asked that the patent be revoked.
The challenged Opsware patent claims methods for automatically configuring or installing software on a plurality of computing devices having different respective sets of software and/or configurations of operating parameters. When Opsware announced the issuance of their patent, Ben Horowitz, CEO of Opsware, was quoted as commenting, with respect to the ‘289 patent: “This patent solidifies and protects the work we’ve done to greatly advance the automation of data centers.â€
The work that Opsware claims to have done, however, may be found in publicly available references, including open source software projects that are directed to configuring and installing software on computers, and that were available and in public use in the United States more than a year before the filing date of the ‘289 patent. Moreover, the ‘289 patent may impact the developers and users of open source projects, including Cfengine, LCFG, Quattor, and BCFG.
“Individuals, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and businesses throughout the United States rely on these open source software tools to manage their computers,” said PUBPAT’s Executive Director Dan Ravicher. “The technology claimed in the ‘289 is not the work of the inventor named in the ‘289 patent, but rather, is the work of open source developers, who have provided their code for the benefit of the public good, which must be protected.”
The Request for Reexamination filed by PUBPAT against the Opsware remote computer management patent can be found at http://www.pubpat.org/opsware.htm.
Contact:
Daniel Ravicher, Executive Director
Public Patent Foundation
(212) 796-0570
info -at- pubpat.org
The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) is a not-for-profit legal services organization working to protect the public from the harms caused by the patent system, particularly the harms caused by undeserved patents and unsound patent policy.
PUBPAT provides the general public and those specific persons or businesses otherwise deprived of access to the system governing patents, with representation, advocacy, and education.
To be kept informed of PUBPAT News, subscribe to the PUBPAT News List by visiting http://www.pubpat.org.
Russell McOrmond – p2pnet contributing editor
[McOrmond is an independent author (software and non-software) who uses modern business models and licensing (Free/Libre and Open Source Software, Creative Commons). He's also the CLUE policy coordinator.]
Want to subscribe to p2pnet by email with Feedburner? Just click here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use our own p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Wow, I did not know that such an organization existed. Thanks for pointing that out.