[edit] Open Source As Prior Art (OSAPA)

[edit] Goals

The Linux Foundation supports the USPTO's drive to improve the quality of software patents. The goal is to reduce the number of poor quality patents that issue by increasing accessibility to Open Source Software code and documentation that can be used as prior art during the patent examination process. For the Open Source community and many others, this means a reduction in the number of software patents that can be used to threaten software developers and users, and a resulting increase in innovation.

Three specific patent quality initiatives have been identified as a result of collaboration among the USPTO, IBM, OSDL and others in the Open Source community and software industry. Those patent quality initiatives are:

• Open Source Software as Prior Art (the subject of this website)
• Community patent review
• Patent quality index

[edit] Background

History
Participants

[edit] Links

This website and related wiki and mailing lists provide a central location for information and exchanges of ideas on the Open Source Software as Prior Art Initiative.

• FAQ - question/answer board
• OSAPA Wiki
• The priorart discussion list (priorart-discuss)
• Patent Commons
• Linux Legal Defense Fund

[edit] Open Source as Prior Art

The topic of this Project is: Open Source as Prior Art (should probably be renamed to FLOSS as Prior Art, just to be neutral about some political/social issues). Thus you need to know what FLOSS and Prior Art is. Here you can find some basic information:

• Free/Libre/Open-Source Software - FLOSS
• Open Source Definition
• Open-source Software
• Prior Art - Introduction to Prior Art
• Patent Top Ten - Top 10 things you should know about patents