United States: OIN outmanuevers Microsoft, buys Linux patents.Byline: kusumv03 The Open Invention Network The Open Invention Network (OIN) is a company that acquires patents and licenses them royalty free to entities which, in turn, agree not to assert their own patents against Linux or Linux-related applications. seems to have one upped Microsoft. Or has Microsoft one upped OIN Either way, it s win-win for Linux. Yesterday, OIN, whose mission is to defend Linux and open source from patent trolls Patent troll is a pejorative term used for a person or company that enforces its patents against one or more alleged infringers in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic. , purchased 22 Linux related patents Microsoft recently sold to Allied Security Trust. OIN chief executive Keith Bergelt would not say how much OIN spent on the patents but said it was a meaningful amount. He said the open source community lucked out because the seller, AST (AST Computer, Irvine, CA) A PC manufacturer founded in 1980 by Albert Wong, Safi Quershey and Tom Yuen (A, S and T). It offered a complete line of PCs that sold through its dealer channel. , is not a patent troll. AST, not an investment vehicle, recently purchased the patents from Microsoft to ensure that they did not fall into the hands of non-practicing entities that could seek to assert the patents against Linux products, the press release stated. Bergelt does not take issue with Microsoft s rights to assert and sell its intellectual property but he did question why the software giant blocked OIN from the bidding. Was it an overight Or an attempt by Microsoft to circulate cir·cu·late v. cir·cu·lat·ed, cir·cu·lat·ing, cir·cu·lates v.intr. 1. To move in or flow through a circle or circuit: blood circulating through the body. 2. potentially dangerous IP bombs into the patent troll community? The patents covered open source software related to operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. and desktop and broader applications, Bergelt said. Some of them were purchased from former Unix vendor SGI (SGI, Sunnyvale, CA, www.sgi.com) A manufacturer of workstations and servers, founded in 1982 by Jim Clark. The company was founded as Silicon Graphics, Inc., but changed to its acronym in 1999. . I don t begrudge be·grudge tr.v. be·grudged, be·grudg·ing, be·grudg·es 1. To envy the possession or enjoyment of: She begrudged him his youth. See Synonyms at envy. 2. Microsoft s opportunity to generate a fair return on their IP but I m concerned about a strategy of selling Linux related and open source software patents to trolls, Bergelt said to this blogger (1) A person who writes Weblogs. See blog. (2) (Blogger) A Web site launched in 1999 from Pyra Labs, San Francisco, CA (www.blogger.com) that provides the tools for creating blogs (Weblogs). . No, they have not done this before and I d hope it doesn t happen again. He said it s possible that leaving OIN out of the bidding was an oversight on Microsoft s part but not probable. I can t imagine how they could justify it, Bergelt said about Microsoft s IP execs not being informed about OIN. It appears to be an elegant way of insulating the company from criticism by trying to sell it to a troll. Again, AST is not a troll, Bergelt emphasized. But did Microsoft know that? Sure, Microsoft made some money on the Linux related patents. That has to be annoying to OIN members who paid for them. But this is a win-win for Linux. It demonstrates that Microsoft has not been able to cook up an uber mega legal case against Linux (maybe?) if it is selling Linux related patents to smaller entities. And the more Linux related patents Microsoft sells, the fewer it owns. It also demonstrates that OIN is functioning very well in the marketplace. For the money it paid, the Linux defense organization which is backed by IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , Novell and Red Hat, among others has gained more patents to its own growing portolio and prevented the trolls from gaining control of 22 linux related ones. The OIN protfolio is now just south of 300 patents and more are coming. OIN created 45 of its own and has another 45 patent applications in the works designed to protect the Linux roadmap over time. Copyright [c] : Euclid Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
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