Posted on 03/07/2012 7:36:05 AM PST by ShadowAce
An alliance of technology corporations, including IBM, is expanding the scope of patent protection it provides to developers, vendors, and users of open source software such as Linux. The move cuts against the grain of major companies going after each other, filing suit over patent infringement.
The consortium, known as the Open Invention Network, already provides an array of patent protections to certain Linux and open-source applications found on corporate data-center and back-office servers. Today's announcement will extend those protections to more than 700 additional open-source software packages, including Android, Google's (GOOG) smartphone operating system; OpenJDK, a popular programmers' development kit; and applications relating to network management and security. "As the Linux community expands," says the network's CEO Keith Bergelt, "we've had to broaden the aperture of our protections."
OIN was formed in 2005 by IBM (IBM), Novel, Philips, Red Hat, Sony (SNE), and NEC (NIPNF) to foster a cooperative environment in which free and open-source software (FOSS) could thrive. Today the OIN's original charter members form the hub of a community that includes more than 400 "licensee" companies, including such giants as Google, Oracle (ORCL), Yahoo (YHOO), Fujitsu (FJTSY), LG Electronics (LGL), and, as of the past year, recent signatories like Facebook, Twitter, and Cisco (CSCO).
Free and open-source software is written collaboratively by independent programmers and, by its licensing terms, confers certain "freedoms" upon users that are usually forbidden by proprietary software companies, like Microsoft (MSFT). These freedoms include the right to see the software's source code, alter it, copy it, and redistribute it. The best known open-source product is Linux, or GNU/Linux, a complete open-source operating system that quickly became popular among Fortune 500 corporations for use on data-center servers. Patents threaten the free-and-open-source eco-system, however, in that none...
(Excerpt) Read more at tech.fortune.cnn.com ...
The way patent lawsuits tend to work is a company with a small portfolio has to yield to the company with the large portfolio. By pooling them, the associated companies provide a large portfolio shield against such lawsuits.
For real time coverage where this is being abused in Oracle v Google see http://www.groklaw.net
LOL. My cat has successfully rebooted by Linux workstation. She’s a smart one.
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