“Many commercial software vendors—IBM, Microsoft and Sun
among them—have faced software patent claims. So it should
come as no surprise that Linux is also susceptible to claims of
patent infringement. Given the sorry state of the U.S. patent
system, any technology—be it a standard commercial product or
an open-source application—could face a damaging patent
claim.“However, recent findings by Open Source Risk Management, an
insurer focused on open-source liability, that Linux could be
threatened by 283 issued patents does point out a potential problem
for corporate users of Linux distributions…”