"Our strategy in dealing with patents in Mono is the same strategy that any other software developer would take. In the event of a patent claim, we will try to find prior art to the claim of the patent"
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This is the calm voice you use when you want a fight to look like paperwork. De Icaza frames patent risk around Mono as ordinary developer hygiene: someone claims you infringed, you dig up prior art, you move on. The intent is reassurance, aimed at a community that worried Mono (an open-source implementation of Microsofts .NET) could become a legal tripwire. By insisting the strategy is what "any other software developer would take", he normalizes an asymmetrical threat: patents arent bugs you fix, theyre leverage someone else can pull.
The subtext is a quiet admission that the battlefield is already conceded. He is not saying patents are legitimate, or that innovation needs them; he is saying the only practical response is defensive lawyering. "In the event of a patent claim" is doing a lot of work: it treats litigation not as a remote possibility but as a foreseeable stage of adoption. The promise is not immunity, its triage.
Context matters. Mono lived in the shadow of Microsofts portfolio and a broader era when software patents were routinely used to intimidate open source. Prior art is the engineers weapon of choice because its what they can generate: evidence, timestamps, mailing lists, old code. Its also a reminder that the open-source world often wins by proving it was there first, not by proving it shouldnt have to play this game.
The line sells realism with a veneer of neutrality. It reassures developers without challenging the system that makes them need reassurance.
The subtext is a quiet admission that the battlefield is already conceded. He is not saying patents are legitimate, or that innovation needs them; he is saying the only practical response is defensive lawyering. "In the event of a patent claim" is doing a lot of work: it treats litigation not as a remote possibility but as a foreseeable stage of adoption. The promise is not immunity, its triage.
Context matters. Mono lived in the shadow of Microsofts portfolio and a broader era when software patents were routinely used to intimidate open source. Prior art is the engineers weapon of choice because its what they can generate: evidence, timestamps, mailing lists, old code. Its also a reminder that the open-source world often wins by proving it was there first, not by proving it shouldnt have to play this game.
The line sells realism with a veneer of neutrality. It reassures developers without challenging the system that makes them need reassurance.
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| Topic | Coding & Programming |
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