Definition: DPL

(1) (Digital PowerLine) An earlier technology for transmitting a 1 Mbps data signal over electric power lines from Nortel Networks. It was developed in the late 1990s, but later abandoned due to implementation difficulties. See broadband over power lines.

(2) (Defensive Patent License) A legal mechanism proposed by Professors Jason Schultz and Jennifer Urban, who head the UC Berkeley's Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic. The DPL gives open source software developers the equivalent of patent protection, much as the GPL license supports a version of copyright. Users of the DPL would grant each other licenses to protect against patent trolls and others who might abuse their intellectual property.