SOUTHFIELD – Brooks Kushman has established an Open Sourcing Management practice group. Brooks Kushman’s OSM group helps companies understand and select OSS, and comply with OSS license terms.
As an intellectual property law firm, Brooks Kushman can assist organizations in this area both to identify a company?s current and future OSS status, as well as provide practical, legally compliant solutions and future strategies for compliance.
Brooks Kushman?s OSM practice group consists of a robust team that is highly experienced in electrical engineering and computer software, which is vital to properly understand, evaluate and advise manufacturers and distributors with respect to OSS. Led by Shareholder John LeRoy, the team helps clients identify what OSS is in their products using digital auditing tools, understand what license terms and legal obligations govern the use and distribution of that OSS, and formulate a strategy to comply with the license terms. Brooks Kushman?s practice group will also train software developers on how to select open source projects for inclusion in future projects. Educated selection of open source may reduce license compliance obligations.
As companies from numerous industries recognize the value and cost benefit of using OSS in their products they are calling on Brooks Kushman?s expertise to advise them on license compliance. As a result, the OSM practice group is presenting at numerous conferences across the nation to provide companies with practical guidance and legal counsel on how to develop and distribute products to minimize open source liability, as well as manage open source in purchasing and sales.
According to Brooks Kushman, the use of OSS has become more prevalent as software takes a more prominent role in everyday life. The increased use of OSS is due in part to its numerous advantages, including reducing a product?s time-to-market and decreased development costs. But a proper compliance process, as stated by a given software?s licensing agreement, is critical to ensure a company doesn?t violate the terms and risk liability.
Legal risk associated with use of OSS could include liability for copyright infringement if license terms aren?t followed. Since this liability can be triggered at all levels of a product?s supply chain, it is critical to understand and manage these terms before a product is introduced into the supply chain.
