* Linux vendors set up the Open Invention Network for royalty-free patents
A group of high-profile vendors recently got together to help the Linux community avoid the dicey issue of software patent infringement. Call it a patent payoff system.
IBM, Novell, Philips Electronics, Sony and Red Hat combined to start the Open Invention Network. The goal is to acquire software patents and then turn them over to other companies royalty-free. The OIN will be headed by Jerry Rosenthal, the former vice president of IBM’s Intellectual Property and Licensing business, who you can be sure knows about the troubles infringement issues can cause.
The move is not purely out of charity; part of the deal of making the acquired patents available to companies, individuals or organizations is that these groups or individuals would pledge to not make claims of any patent infringement against Linux. The hope is that the quid pro quo patent incentive – which could include use of a cache of intellectual property rights for business application software – would keep more SCO Groups from coming out and making patent claims against Linux. Clearly, there is a lot at stake for the OIN: IBM is embroiled in a Linux/Unix patent dispute with SCO; Red Hat is the leading Linux vendor; and Sony and Philips are moving more towards using Linux and open source in commercial and consumer electronics products.
IBM is not new to patent largess; in January it released 500 of its software patents to the open source community. Sun followed suit shortly after, giving up 1,670 of its software patents to the open source community. (Although this is a small number of the 300,000 or so enforceable software patents estimated to be on the books at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.)
