Red Hat CEO on patent trolls: Just pay them off

[jbrodkin]

With Red Hat on the verge of becoming the first billion-dollar company focused exclusively on open source software, it has attracted quite a bit of attention — from lawyers waving patents. And although Red Hat fights lawsuits when it deems it necessary, CEO Jim Whitehurst says it's often just better to pay the trolls to make them go away. "When it's so little money, at some point, bluntly, it's better to settle than fight these things out," Whitehurst said.

[bediger]

I don't know what to make of this. On one hand, he says a lot that makes sense, but on the other hand, if Red Hat fought patents owned by patent trolls the courts would have to deal with the underlying issues (software is essentially math, and probably not a good idea to patent) over and over. Sooner rather than later, the US Supreme Court would rule on it, hopefully in a manner that makes sense, although they have ruled in spectacularly bizarre ways in the past (separate but equal).