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Just a reminder, these posts are not legal advice. This site is the personal blog of Mark Radcliffe and the opinions expressed are those of Mark Radcliffe and not those of his clients, DLA Piper or the clients of DLA Piper.

About Me:

Mark Radcliffe

I have been practicing law in Silicon Valley for over thirty years assisting startups and global companies develop and market innovative products and services. I have participated in multiple business cyles in Silicon Valley from hardware to software to internet to cloud. My projects have included developing the dual licensing business model for open source startup, developing the original domain dispute resolution policy for NSI and assisting Sun in open sourcing the Solaris operating system. Recently, I served on the US Japan Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council (one of ten members) to develop a plan to encourage the innovation in Japan and the United States. I have been working with the same attorneys since 1986 although we have merged with other law firms several times. I am now a partner at DLA Piper, a (relatively) new global law firm formed in 2005 from the merger of three law firms. The firm now has 4200 lawyers in 31 countries and 77 cities. My experience in corporate securities (particularly venture capital) and intellectual property enables me to assist companies structure the financing and intellectual property strategy for developing ane exploiting a new product or service. I and my team work with fifty startups at one time as well as Global Fortune 100. I have been fortunate enough to work with companies in software, cloud computing, semiconductor, health care IT and Web 2.0.

Administrative Court in Lille Finds for Open Source

07/02/11

My French partner, Sandrine Rambaud, brought to my attention a decision dated December 29, 2010, that leveled the playing field for open source vendors: the Administrative Court of Lille, France cancelled a public procurement procedure because the procedure excluded the possibility of proposing open source software in bid responses. Instead, the municipalities that put out the bid expressly required  bidders to propose an Oracle database and Business Objects environments for the generation of reports. 

The French company, Nexedi, which offers open source solutions, alleged that the tendering of the public procurement under such terms does not comply with the principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination, and in particular with Article 6 of the French Public Procurement Code. Article 6 provides that technical specifications included in a public bid cannot include the reference to a trademark or a patent, as such reference could favor or exclude some bidders or products. Such reference is only possible in very specific cases. 

Nexedi challenged the validity of such procedure before the Administrative Court of Lille, which ruled to cancel the procedure. This decision is great news for open source companies and open procurement!

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1 Comment

  1. [...] software as demonstrated by the recent decision by an administrative court in Lille, France. http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.com/blog/?p=584 [...]

    Pingback by Law & Life: Silicon Valley » Government Procurement: Great Expectations for FOSS — April 3, 2011 @ 11:02 pm

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