Risks

• Developers tend to favor open source code to accelerate the production of their software and keep costs down. However, the source code may hold some program functions that have been patented under the umbrella of a third party. Furthermore, the software may weave in code from the public domain that cannot be patented by anyone.
  
  Hence, the risks reside in the liability of infringing on someone else's patented software, or in having to forfeit royalty income for a product that uses public domain code, as explained by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office.
  
  

Avoidance

• These potential challenges could be circumvented by avoiding the integration of any open source software in a product. However, developing a new digital program that does not include a piece from prior code becomes most unlikely, says the Law School of the University of Washington, which recommends mitigation as the more practical strategy.
  
  

Mitigation

• A patent landscape analysis of the open source software may identify the owners of the intellectual property buried in the open source code. From the evaluation, the developer can then make a financial decision by comparing the cost of gaining rights to the patents and the investment required for writing new software.
  
  

Protection

• Some companies acquire infringement insurance coverage to weather litigation resulting from the use of open source software.
  
  

Expertise

• Management of patent risks requires a sophisticated understanding of the legal landscape of open source software, which is best left to the judgment and guidance of patent attorneys or patent agents.