License Profile: The Eclipse Public License

Abstract

The Eclipse Public License (“EPL”) is an open source license that is widely used in various open source projects, most notably by the Eclipse Foundation. The EPL is often described as a weak copyleft license, and contains a narrower and, some argue, more precise reciprocity obligation than that of the GNU General Public License (“GPL”). Further, the EPL includes a patent retaliation provision intended to discourage patent litigation, but still limited in scope so as to not scare off companies with large patent portfolios. This article provides a summary and overview of the EPL