Open Source FAQ > What are the most difficult questions in open source licensing? > Are there implied patent licenses under GPL and other open source licenses?
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Although some open source licenses have express patent licenses, none of the have reservations of rights. So, there may be "implied licenses" granted when one contributes to or distributes open source code. This causes great concern for companies that have patent portfolios to protect. The hard part is not usually patents that would read directly on the code -- it's of greater concern how far beyond that an implied license would go. The law on implied licenses is very unclear, and overlaps with notions of patent exhaustion and estoppel.
Last updated on November 17, 2009 by Heather Meeker