The Campaign to Boycott Trend Micro

The growing boycott of web security solutions corporation Trend Micro should be firm warning to the rest of the proprietary software industry: Trying to shipwreck the Free Software movement in the murky waters of software patent litigation is a good way to get bit in the ass by a Barracuda. Cheap metaphors aside, Barracuda Networks' decision to fight Trend Micro's seeming egregious patent claims against ClamAV may be indicative of a growing intolerance of certain proprietary software developers' attempts to use trivial or blatantly meaningless patent claims to strangle open innovation and development.

I tried to find a balanced account of the issue or, failing that, information from both sides. While Barracuda has posted a Press Release describing the issue, I could not find any information on Trend's site about their claims against ClamAV or their rationale. Perhaps they're afraid that doing so would just bring them down further. Linux.com has posted a fairly thorough and balanced article about the lawsuit and the boycott.

In my opinion, Trend is now poised to join the illustrious ranks of those now infamous corporate behemoths who have tried to halt the spread of ideas and information by resorting to absurd patent lawsuits in desperate attempts to force their markets to fit rigid business models that reality left in the dust several decades ago. In time, the name "Trend Micro" may take its place among such well-known names as RIAA, MPAA, Diebold, the SCO Group, and of course Microsoft.