Perens: open source faces patent peril

Bruce Perens has warned that patent issues still threaten open source software

The NTP/RIM settlement is the "new poster boy" of what is wrong with the patent system, open source activist Bruce Perens said in a meeting with reporters at LinuxWorld in Boston.

BlackBerry maker RIM was forced in March to pay $612.5m to settle a patent infringement case in which the patent is expected to be invalidated.

Perens is a self-appointed open source activist who claims to be "looking out " for independent developers.

A noted opponent of software patents, Perens previously headed up HP's open source initiatives and been involved with the Desktop Linux Consortium.

Perens pointed to remarks by Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer in a recent interview in which he said: " There are experts who claim that Linux violates our intellectual property."

Perens also blasted the US Patent and Trademark Office for failing to enforce its own rules.

All patent applications are signed under penalty of perjury but, although Perens claimed that there have been numerous cases of patent applications where the applicant knowingly copied previously published work, the Patent Office has failed to enforce those cases.

Perens called on the legal community to help him file a test lawsuit.