Black Duck Software has hired Larry Rosen as senior advisor. The highly respected open source lawyer will provide legal and market guidance to the company, which markets intellectual property rights management software to corporate users of Linux and other open source software.

Larry Rosen is well-known for his role as general counsel and secretary for the Open Source Initiative (OSI), the body that reviews and approves major open source licenses (several of which Rosen has authored). Rosen also authored Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law.

Black Duck markets services that aim to help commercial software developers, enterprise buyers, and Linux developers manage software intellectual property. It announced its services in April, before launching them in May.

In July, Black Duck closed a $5 million round of funding, and the Massachussetts based startup announced a partnership with Red Hat in August.

Rosen stated, “Black Duck's technology and services address a serious issue and solve a real problem for any company developing software. I will provide them legal and market guidance so that we can continue to extend the Open Source movement.”

 
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