From 076f7b7cd8e342ea68ea9d01f42d996835d2a96b 2015-02-02 16:11:14 From: Bradley M. Kuhn Date: 2015-02-02 16:11:14 Subject: [PATCH] Preservation of implied patent license is unique. This footnote, co-drafted by me and Richard Fontana, explains the apparent uniqueness GPLv3's preservation clause for GPLv2's original implied patent license. Fontana pointed out this distinction with commercial patent licensing. I noticed as a further point that even some copyleft licenses, let alone non-copyleft Free Software licenses, fail to include any clauses preserving implicit patent license grants. Such is certainly of concern for those licenses that contain explicit patent licensing provisions. Fontana notes that during GPLv3 process, he was concerned that an explicit patent license in GPLv3 might provide a basis for some to later argue an implied patent license was no longer present. GPLv3ยง11's final paragraph assures its safety. --- diff --git a/gpl-lgpl.tex b/gpl-lgpl.tex index 291998ef638919e808f8293224e8a8d3860c1194..40439132f631a4d7ac36f6a5ac855e2faf94dc9b 100644 --- a/gpl-lgpl.tex +++ b/gpl-lgpl.tex @@ -3846,7 +3846,19 @@ Instead, GPLv3~\S11\P3--5 are specifically concerned with explicit promises that are purportedly legally enforceable. Nevertheless, unlike traditional commercial patent licensing -agreements\footnote{FIXME: note such a clause is rare, if not unique.}, +agreements\footnote{Typically, well-drafted commercial patent license + agreements explicitly exclude any possibility of + implied licenses. Thus, GPLv3's final paragraph may be unique among both commercial + agreements and/or other Free Software licenses (both copyleft and + non-copyleft). Careful study of the patent licensing implications of GPL + should not ignore this observation. In particular, contrast carefully the + goals of commercial patent licensing agreements and the policy goals of a + copyleft license. Namely, patent license granters typically draft patent license + to explicitly license only a narrow set of patents. However, FSF sought to assure + patent licenses for all Free Software users, redistributors, and developers. + While GPLv3\S11 undoubtedly contains some compromises regarding explicit + patent licensing, FSF did not compromise on bringing forward GPLv2's + existing implicit patent license.}, rather than confining the patent license grant to some narrow set of such express situations, GPLv3 preserves the \hyperref[gpl-implied-patent-grant]{existing implied patent licensing structure}