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How about patents? I remember having read that IBM holds patents for homomorphic encryption. Does the open sourcing also include a royalty free license to IBMs patents?

EDIT: Just saw GPL2 or later, so choosing GPL3 would mean patent license included, right?

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If they release it under GPL3 then you'd be able to use it even if it's infriging on IBM's patents, if they release it under GPL2 then no.

I'd put it other way round: If software is infringing on someone's patents then it is illegal to license it under GPL3.

The above poster was specifically referring to IBM's patents. IBM licensing this code under the GPL also extends a patent license for all of their own patents. This comes from the word "contributors" in section 11.

They obviously can't grant a patent license for patents they don't hold, but that's life.

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