Florian Mueller on software patents

Florian Müller, since 2010 or 2011, works or has worked for Microsoft and Oracle, but he has also previously worked with anti-software-patent campaigns.

His writings are frequently overly pessimistic, to the point of being misleading, and he only reports the bad news. This is particularly true since his 2010 comeback. However he publishes a lot of information that can't be found elsewhere and is worth reading, but you have to check his statements. So his blog is a poor news source but a great starting point. Since he is German, his writings about the German court rulings are particularly useful.

In 2004 and 2005, he was on the side lobbying against software patents, during the campaigns surrounding the proposed EU software patents directive. At that time, some of his actions and policies drew heavy criticism from within the anti-software-patent campaigns. He also received a lot of praise.

Anti-swpat campaigning

He built the well-known campaign site NoSoftwarePatents.org (which he later handed to FFII) and his anti-swpat lobbying work earned him various awards.^{[reference needed]}

After the directive was canceled, Mueller published his account of the overall campaign in the book No Lobbyists As Such.

2010 return with Microsoft and Oracle

In 2010, Mueller returned with a blog, "FOSS Patents", discussing software patents and other topics.

In October 2011, Mueller announced that he'd accepted a one-year contract to work for Microsoft doing a study about FRAND.

In 2012 he acknowledged that he is also paid by Oracle.

Mueller posts regularly (username FlorianMueller) to community forums such as Slashdot and LWN.net.

External links

• 06-09-01 patent policy briefing document v1.02.pdf (archive.org copy)
  • (in German) German version (archive.org copy)
• The EPLA Road to SwPats v1.3.pdf (2006?) (archive.org copy)
  • (in German) German version (archive.org copy)
• http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/ - Mueller's current blog, as of April 2010
• http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/
  • Florian's bio (self authored)
• Wikipedia: Florian Müller