In other cases it has been suggested that you simply add a SerializationBinder which removes the version from the assembly type. However, when using generic collections of a type found in a signed assembly, that type is strictly versioned based on its assembly.

Here is what I've found works.

internal class WeaklyNamedAssemblyBinder : SerializationBinder
{
    public override Type BindToType(string assemblyName, string typeName)
    {
        ResolveEventHandler handler = new ResolveEventHandler(CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve);
        AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve += handler;

        Type returnedType;
        try
        {
            AssemblyName asmName = new AssemblyName(assemblyName);
            var assembly = Assembly.Load(asmName);
            returnedType = assembly.GetType(typeName);
        }
        catch
        {
            returnedType = null;
        }
        finally
        {
            AppDomain.CurrentDomain.AssemblyResolve -= handler;
        }

        return returnedType;
    }

    Assembly CurrentDomain_AssemblyResolve(object sender, ResolveEventArgs args)
    {
        string truncatedAssemblyName = args.Name.Split(',')[0];
        Assembly assembly = Assembly.Load(truncatedAssemblyName);
        return assembly;
    }
}

However, causing the binding process to change globally seems rather dangerous to me. Strange things could happen if serialization was happening in multiple threads. Perhaps a better solution is to do some regex manipulation of the typeName? What do you think?