Michael Herman blogs about IBM’s decision to waive enforcement on 500 patents making a useful distinction between patent right and patent enforcement. His summary:
Patents and open source profit and commons. Ownership and self-interest are maintained boundaries and body intact. AND… value, profit and well-being are maximized by offering, sharing and taking credit in commons, communities and markets. This is exactly the kind of mutuality that we must and will be developing more and more, as businesses feed communities for profit and community activists come together in markets like the small Change News Network.
