Trend Micro Learns That Suing For Patents On Open Source Software Can Backfire

from the don't-mess-with-the-community dept

Tue, Feb 12th 2008 6:23am — Mike Masnick

It seemed rather bad form back in December for Trend Micro to sue a competitor claiming that its anti-virus system violated a patent for using some open source software. Not only would it likely slow down innovation in the space and allow those with bad intent to distance themselves even further from security professionals trying to stop them, it also would piss off the open source community. We've already seen that community step up in the effort to find prior art, and now Slashdot is reporting that open source supporters are starting a boycott of Trend Micro products in response to the lawsuit. It seems like yet another case of the lawyers getting ahead of the business people in deciding who to sue.

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Filed Under: boycotts, open source, patents, security
Companies: trend micro

14 Comments

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angry dude, 12 Feb 2008 @ 6:50am

Mike strikes out again
Mikey, don't you get it, dude, that suing another commercial entity using open-source in their products is not the same as "suing open source" ?

I for one would never sue open source developers.. What for ? there is no money involved and nobody to sue
Commercial entiry making money on open source code which happens to infringe on somebody's patent is a whole different story..

With all this said, Trend Micro's products suck big time
A bloated piece of junk
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matt, 12 Feb 2008 @ 7:42am

Mike got it right
I think Mike got it right. However, I boycotted their products recently as well. Unfortunately I didn't know ClamAV was as good as people said until I started being made aware from the lawsuit. ...all my previous windows customers were always pointed to TrendMicro. Oh well.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2008 @ 7:50am

Re: Mike strikes out again
I fail to see where Mike made that assertion. Suing companies that use open source software *does* piss off the OSS community, mostly because it causes FUD about Open Source itself, but also because the community is more able to see through the lawsuit and OSS developers are free to speak their mind as publicly as they like. Pointing that out seems pretty reasonable to me.
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Trevlac, 12 Feb 2008 @ 9:14am

Re: Mike strikes out again
They didn't suck last year. But this new 2008 software is as bad as Norton when it comes to startup.

Does anyone know if Webroot's Antivirus compares to Trend Micro's?
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Haywood, 12 Feb 2008 @ 9:51am

Re: Re: Mike strikes out again
The end-all is called AVAST Free. It is free, thorough, auto updating, and has a boot-time scan, that is pretty amazing. The only thing wrong with it is you have to renew your license, again for free after a year. The only other ones I use are PCTOOLS free, good but no auto update, & Ashampoo free, ok but not truly amazing.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Feb 2008 @ 10:08am

Re: Mike strikes out again
With all this said, Trend Micro's products suck big time
A bloated piece of junk
More accurately, many of Trend Micro's products suck. However, their free "Housecall" has saved my butt on many occasions when a machine's installed virus scanner has been compromised.
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ehrichweiss, 12 Feb 2008 @ 11:55am

Angry Dudette is watching the wrong ballgame
Dude, now you know why we don't believe that you have a patent: cause reading comprehension is obviously not your strong point, nor is logic.
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Mitch, 12 Feb 2008 @ 12:05pm

Re: Re: Re: Mike strikes out again
AVG spanks AVAST. Better scanning no license renewal, free daily virus updates, small footprint. Its also one of the number one downloads on download.com
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angry dude, 12 Feb 2008 @ 12:24pm

Re: Angry Dudette is watching the wrong ballgame
shut up little punk
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Etch, 12 Feb 2008 @ 2:22pm

I don't get it
Wait, this article is a little vague and confusing!!

Is TrendMicro suing this other company because they are profiting from Open Source Code, which is a violation of this open source's developers' GNU license?

Did I get that part right?

If so, then shouldn't the developers of the OSS be responsible for that?
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Nelson, 12 Feb 2008 @ 7:37pm

finger pointes @ trend micro
HA Ha
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Mike (profile), 13 Feb 2008 @ 12:57am

Re: Mike strikes out again
Mikey, don't you get it, dude, that suing another commercial entity using open-source in their products is not the same as "suing open source" ?

Did I say otherwise?

However, Trend Micro is clearly targeting the open source component of that software, and that action has triggered the community to respond. I'm not sure how you can deny that that is exactly what has happened.

I've asked you before to take the time to understand things to respond. It's disappointing to see you choose not to follow that advice.
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Anonymous Coward, 15 Feb 2008 @ 6:05am

"AVG spanks AVAST"

AVG ROCKS!!! Never hogs resources, FREE, NO ADS, Has found java and other viruses NORTON did not find.
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Joe Dirty, 20 Jan 2010 @ 11:28am

Avoided Trend Micro
I am not going to even consider Trend Micro after reading this. E-mail encryption will go to someone else.
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