From: davecramer@gmail.com [mailto:davecramer@gmail.com] On Behalf Of > Dave Cramer > Certainly there is history of people using PG code for non-PostgreSQL or > at least commercial derivative work. Greenplum for example.
Yes, we would be glad if companies in the PostgreSQL community, including Greenplum, could utilize our patents and prosper with no charge. We just want to use our (future) patents to make PostgreSQL a more wonderful DBMS, and to protect PostgreSQL against patent lawsuits by companies outside PostgreSQL community.
I can't speak for my employer, but to me it seems like a broad patent grant that follows the code and derivatives would be reasonable.
A grant just for "PostgreSQL", not so much.
I'm not sure how much practical protection/benefit that'd offer unless it came with a retaliation clause, though, and how it'd differ from an unrestricted grant of rights for everyone. I mentioned that earlier. If you can take a few snippets of PostgreSQL code and add them to your product to inherit the patent grant, then in practice the patent grant is universal, not specific to PostgreSQL and derivatives. But if you start requiring "substantial" derivatives, etc, it gets messy and complicated.
I'm not sure how grants with retaliation clauses would be received by others here. I lack the expertise to have much of an opinion myself. Is that what you propose?
