Open Source Software

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Open Source Software Attorney

  • We are lawyers.  They are not.  Our Open Source Attorneys (who happen to be open source software developers) have the knowledge and experience to handle your open source software issue, including open source licensing, open source source code audit, copyright infringement, and helping clients extend their licensing and monetization plans around open source business model.  An experienced open source lawyer knows how to help you build asset value. An open source licensing lawyer is a better option to help you with your software risk assessment.
  • Know Your Code.   Open Source software continues to become an important part of the innovation technology ecosystem. If your attorney does not know how open source software and licensing works, then your chance of success is at risk.  The first step to managing open source is to understand how much you have in your code and where it’s used. Our lawyers use special software that scans and audits your code.  We then prepare a risk assessment identifying issues and recommending next steps.  Ignoring license compliance can result in bad publicity, copyright infringement lawsuits, damage company reputation and impact asset value. Open source licensing can be tricky.  We can help.
  • Identify OSS Risks.  In some instances, copyright infringement litigation around open source becomes necessary. An experienced open source copyright infringement attorney can protect your IP get you the results you seek. Once an audit is completed, you can determine if you are at risk for a copyright infringement lawsuit for violating n open source software license.

We Conduct Open Source Software Audits For Our Clients.  We can Conduct a Software Audit for You.

You need to know what is in your source code. We can help. We use proprietary search technology and methods to identify open source code and software licenses in any source code file. Out source code methods cost less than other vendors.  Plus, we are software and copyright attorneys who can asses and reduce your risk. Contact us today for more information about our software code audit capabilities.

Other Open Source Software Services We Provide

  • Open Source licensing models and licensing agreement drafting and negotiation.
  • Copyright Infringement litigation, including Plaintiff-side and Defense.
  • Copyright Infringement Cease & Desist/Demand Letters and Responses..
  • Copyright Licensing for Open Source Developers
  • Copyright License Audits for Software Developers and Investors.

You’ll get a listing of all the open source licenses in your code. From there the first step is you need to identify if there are any problem licenses. So in the context of a distributed mobile application, you want to avoid anything that’s going to be copyleft, because copyleft means you have to make your own source code available to anybody you give the application to.

Every company that uses, develops or integrates software should audit their code on a continual basis for third party copyrights, especially open source licenses. If you are an investor, or purchasing a company, you need to know what you are buying.

M&A requires that you conduct reviews of software applications and embedded software to identify, assess and, if necessary, mitigate risks associated with noncompliance with open source licenses.

Copyright infringement on the internet is a serious problem.  If you think your copyright is being infringed, contact one of our Copyright Infringement Attorneys immediately as there is only a three-year Statute of Limitations to bring a copyright infringement claim. If you don’t protect your copyright against infringement, who will?

Not all use of a copyright constitutes infringement.  Courts consider four factors in determining whether using a copyright is Fair Use: (1) Purpose & Character; (2) Nature of the Work; (3) Amount & Substantiality; and (4) Effect.  This four-factor Fair Use analysis is determined on a case-by-case basis. No hard and fast rules can be pulled from the case law, but some governing principles can aid in the analysis conducted by your attorney.

“So what this means for proprietary software developers is that you need to know what other licenses may exist in your code. If there is copyleft code in your proprietary code, you may have a big problem says litigation attorney Enrico Schaefer.”

A copyright licensing attorney knows how important it is to draft the license agreement to your advantage.  One of the primary values of owning and registering a copyright is that you can transfer some or those rights to third parties in exchange for royalties. Copyright licensing is contractual in nature and can either transfer all of the copyright rights in a work or only some of the rights provided by the Copyright Act. Copyright licenses are common, but often poorly drafted.

Traverse Legal’s Attorneys are globally recognized for their experience and results in the legal areas of: Complex Litigation, Internet, Trademark, Copyright, Patent, Cybersquatting, Drone, Defamation, Trade Secret, Non-Compete, and Business Law.

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We’re here to field your questions and concerns. If you are a company able to pay a reasonable legal fee each month, please contact us today.