Moorcrofts’ Head of Technology and IP, Andrew Katz will speak at the EU Open Source Policy Summit, taking place the day before FOSDEM, on Friday 3 February in the beautiful city of Brussels.

Andrew will form a panel, alongside Carlo Piana, Karen Coepenhaver, Keith Bergelt and Mirko Boehm, revisiting the legal and economic foundation of open source’s engine of unrivalled innovation.

The panel will go back to basics and consider the economic and innovation benefits of Open Source Software as more research into the topic has emerged in the last few years. The panellists will be asked to revisit the patent and copyright licensing regimes that underlies the Open Source innovation model’s pro-competitive platform, and set the stage for the future opportunities that it can bring to Europe and the world.

Bio

Andrew Katz is a lawyer who has advised on free and open source software, open hardware and other opens for over 25 years. Formerly a software developer, he qualified as a barrister, requalified as a solicitor and is now partner and head of technology law at Moorcrofts LLP, a boutique firm specialising in corporate and technology law. He wrote the Solderpad open hardware licence, and sits on the core drafting team of the CERN Open Hardware Licence. He was Open Hardware lead for the 2021 European Commission study on Open Source Software and Hardware. He has taught a postgraduate Open Source Software law course at Queen Mary College, University of London, and is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Skövde, Sweden, where as part of the Software Systems Research Group he has co-authored papers on open source software, open technologies, interoperability, patent licensing and standards. He is co-author of books published by Oxford University Press, Edinburgh University Press and others. He speaks internationally, most recently delivering a keynote at the Open Compliance Summit in Japan (December 2022). He is chair of the OpenChain UK work group, past General Counsel of OpenUK, and has worked with multinational companies, governments, universities and open source foundations, as well as organisations such as the UN and WIPO.

To attend the panel discussion, book your ticket here.

About the EU Open Source Policy Summit

Europe’s key to success is collaboration. In the digital sphere, collaboration can be spelled Open Source. Open Source is intricately linked to Europe’s collaborative culture. This has made Europe an Open Source champion. With the Open Source innovation model being a fundamental building block of our digital reality, Europe is well-placed to achieve its digital policy goals using Open Source as a strategic tool.

The EU Open Source Policy Summit 2023 will explore Europe’s opportunities when leveraging these modes of technological collaboration at scale. Looking at digital policy through this lens, open and collaborative innovation is a source of optimism.

2023 will be the ninth year OpenForum Europe hosts its Open Source policy event right before FOSDEM. While Europe and the EU is our vantage point, this hybrid event welcomes speakers and participants from across the globe.

Book

For more information and to book your place, visit Open Forum Europe’s website.