A group has been formed to help protect Linux from being undermined by poor-quality software patents.
Linux Defenders, launched on Monday, aims to enlist the developer community's help in finding 'prior art' related to patents affecting open-source code. Prior art is information relevant to a claim of originality in a patent. If examples of work are collected that show an invention has been described in prior art before the patent was granted, then that patent is invalidated.
http://www.linuxlinks.com/portal/news/article.php?story=20090204133206462