Red Hat: Software patents hinder innovation applications for self-defense

In Tuesday, the chief executive of Red hat, Matthew, said that software patents hindered the pace of innovation.
Speaking at the Open Source Business conference, Matthew said that over the past 30 years, we have seen patents as a barrier to innovation. There is no evidence that patents will promote innovation.

In an interview after the speech, Matthew said that software patents "absolutely" hindered the pace of innovation. But he did not call for the repeal of software patents, as other peers in the open source movement.

Last week, Microsoft said that open source software violated its 235 patents, and Red hat was one of Microsoft's targets. Microsoft hopes to reach a patent licensing agreement with Open-source vendors, but it seems unlikely that the two sides will be able to reach a mutually beneficial solution.

In his speech, Matthew called on open source programmers not to violate other people's patents. ' I've talked to a lot of big shots in the open source world and they always respect intellectual property, ' he said.

Matthew points out that it would be useful if Microsoft could share all of its patents, not just the 235 patents. He said that any responsible manufacturer would not intentionally infringe upon others ' patents.

Red hat itself also applies for software patents, but is only intended for "self-defense." The patent has a certain value, Matthew says. If an idea is original, there is no doubt that it is valuable to the person and organization that made the idea.