Press Release - July 28, 2006

Red Hat to Support Community Patent Review Initiative

Red Hat, Inc., the world's leading provider of Linux and open-source software, has agreed to become a lead sponsor of and participant in the Community Patent Review Initiative, which will be launched in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to streamline and improve the review process for patent applications. To improve the quality of issued patents, the Initiative plans to enable third parties to submit to the Patent Office prior art relating to pending patent applications and commentary about the relevance of that art. Red Hat has consented to allow some of its patent applications to be peer reviewed during the pilot project for this Initiative.

"While Examiners at the Patent Office have a duty to grant patents on only inventive technologies, they often have trouble finding references demonstrating that the subject matter of a patent application was already known, especially in the software field," said Adam Avrunin, Chief Patent Counsel for Red Hat, Inc. "For this reason, erroneously issued patents have become quite common in software, posing obstacles to those who innovate by building on past knowledge. We look forward to joining this effort to provide the Patent Office with the information they need to make better decisions during the patent-approval process."

In welcoming Red Hat's support for the Community Patent Review Initiative, Professor Beth Noveck, Director of the Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School, expressed her appreciation for Red Hat’s participation, noting that the peer-review project will benefit greatly from the unique perspective on the patent process that Red Hat has gained from its leadership in the open-source-software community.

For press inquiries, contact Nancy Guida at nguida@nyls.edu.