The short term problem of the patent threat should be addressed by some sort of patent trust or patent bank. I have no idea how to implement this - some sort of license or outright donation.  If corporations are making money off of F/OSS, give them another way to contribute back.  This would give IBM the perfect opportunity to formalize their recent statements about not using patents against linux.

Hoorah IBM.  As mentioned elsewhere on ip-wars.net, IBM has stepped up to the plate and announced a formal pledge!

From businesswire.com:

ARMONK, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 11, 2005--IBM today pledged open access to key innovations covered by 500 IBM software patents to individuals and groups working on open source software. IBM believes this is the largest pledge ever of patents of any kind and represents a major shift in the way IBM manages and deploys its intellectual property (IP) portfolio.
     The pledge is applicable to any individual, community, or company working on or using software that meets the Open Source Initiative (OSI) definition of open source software now or in the future.
     IBM intends for this pledge to form the basis of an industry-wide "patent commons" in which patents are used to establish a platform for further innovations in areas of broad interest to information technology developers and users.

Between OSDL members such as IBM using patents in a F/OSS friendly manner and some points I have seen made by Harlan, I believe the patent threat is diminished at best.  The true threat that is left is from companies who have no interest in bringing products to market, one trick ponies who use patents solely to extort money.