From the OSRM paper:
Dan Ravicher, founder and executive director of the Public Patent Foundation and senior counsel to the Free Software Foundation, reviewed all U.S. software patents that have been litigated through appeal, examining whether the Linux kernel contains technology that could trigger patent claims against end-users. In conclusion, he found that no court-validated software patent is infringed by the Linux kernel. However, Ravicher also found 283 issued but not yet court-validated software patents that, if upheld as valid by the courts, could potentially be used to support patent claims against Linux.\”
That reminds me of the book written by Karl-Friedrich Lenz called \”Grenzen des Patentwesens. Konkrete Maßnahmen gegen die Patentinflation.\”; always worth a read and giving you ideas what one could do against (software)patent claims [2].
[1] http://www.osriskmanagement.com/press_release_080204.pdf
[2] http://k.lenz.name/d/v/Grenzen.pdf
