[libreplanet-discuss] Clarification regarding licensing under the GPL v3

[Jamalulkhair Bin Khairedin]

Dear Libreplanet Members,
        
I have sent enquiries to the Free Software Foundation, Inc
(licensing@gnu.org 
& gnu@gnu.org) but did not get any reply. So, I have to ask here instead.
What we need is a clarification regarding GPLv3. 

We in the process releasing a software module as an open source
software. The product is meant to be used by health-care providers
(eg:hospitals) and we are interested to make it open and free for everybody
to use it.

We are planning to use GPL v3 for the product. However there is an area
that 
need to be clarified specifically referring to GPL item 11 which says
“Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free
patent license under the contributor's essential patent claims, to make,
use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise run, modify and propagate
the contents of its contributor version.”.

We would like to clarify whether the above statement means that :-

a) We need to have a patent registered for our module before using the
GPLv3 license; or
b) We can use GPLv3 without having any patent registered nor any plan to
register for the patent

Your kind clarification and explanation are very much appreciated.

Thank you.

http://www.mampu.gov.my
http://www.moh.gov.my
http://www.oscc.org.my

Regards
-- 

Jamalulkhair Khairedin 
Malaysian Public Sector Open Source Competency Centre (OSCC)
2nd Floor, MKN-Embassy Techzone Building
Block B, No. 3200
Jalan Teknokrat 2
63000 Cyberjaya
Selangor, Malaysia



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