In today’s technological world, products are using software more than ever. Many of these products include new technologies and advancements that implement open source software to operate their systems and functionality, which may be found in consumer electronics, medical devices, automobile technology, cell phone applications and computer software.
Open Source Software is appealing to software developers because of its ease of accessibility, cost savings, and improvement to product development timing. While Open Source Software is free of charge, it is not free of legal implications. Legal risks associated with use of Open Source Software could include liability for copyright infringement if license terms are not complied with, and waiver of your company’s intellectual property rights in the resulting product. It is critical to understand and manage these terms as they apply to your software, before your products are introduced in the supply chain.
An OSS compliant company with a robust compliance process may have an advantage over its competitors from a customer’s point of view. A proper compliance process may insulate you and your customers from liability for violation of Open Source Software terms.
At Brooks Kushman, we help our clients identify what open source is in their products, understand what license terms govern the use and distribution of that open source, and help formulate a strategy to complying with open source license terms. Brooks Kushman will provide you and your organization with practical guidance in the following areas:
Brooks Kushman has a robust team of attorneys and agents that lead the firm’s open source practice. Each attorney has extensive experience in the field. Our knowledge within the industry expands well beyond the technology itself. We work to understand our clients supply chain.
We are a proud partner of Rogue Wave Software® and utilize their OpenLogic® proprietary open source scanning engine to analyze our client’s software. Brooks Kushman’s legal expertise combined with Rogue Wave Software auditing services allows us to provide efficient and reliable compliance strategies.
