IPR indemnities in the open source and proprietary software worlds

Abstract

Intellectual property right (IPR) indemnities in software licences – the commitment of the licensor to step up to the plate and bear the risk if the customer is challenged in its use of the software by a third party for infringing its IPR (see also An Indemnity Primer for IT Consumers: What You Need to Know, What You Want to Have, Jeffrey P Kushan, Sidley Austin Brown & Wood LLP, November 2004 – accessible on http://tinyurl.com/br4vb) – are assuming increasing importance in the competing marketing strategies of the open source software (OSS) and proprietary software vendors' camps as they engage for the hearts and minds of the IT departments of the world's largest customers.