GPL/Open Source: Naieve Question

[Vkmobile <vkmobile () aol com>]

I found this on the Snort.ORG website:

"Sourcefire and Snort are trademarks or registered trademarks of 
Sourcefire, INC. patents pending."

So is Snort really distributed as an open-source/GPL distribution or is 
Snort.ORG actually the marketing and distribution arm of Sourcefire, 
Inc.? If patents are pending then are we all users be required to pay 
royalties at some point? Isn't this all in conflict with the open source 
and GPL? I am bit confused now.

Can someone please educate me on this before we use this?

Thank you.
---
  VK



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