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IBM Opens Their Patent Portfolio to Open Source

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the leading-by-example dept.

kfiller writes "IBM announced that over 500 of their currently held software patents will be freely available to use for those who are working on open source projects (NY Times, free registration required), with the hope that more companies will do the same. More information is available at SourceLicense."

9 of 653 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet! by dolo666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    IBM Opens Their Patent Portfolio to Open Source That does it. I'm buying a crapload of IBM stock. One good decision after another... but somehow I feel strange in doing so. How many of you remember when IBM were the bad guys?

    1. Re:Sweet! by domenic+v1.0 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      IBM giving away its IP portfolio....HARDLY! Read my previous statement regarding IBM's patents. 500 patents is a tiny fraction of the mountain of patents they own.

      This is a very good idea because IBM wants to stem away from guys like this and IP Hoarding companies. You can't sell what everyone has, so in order to protect its patents...IBM is freely distributing it, in effect trying to hit those IP hoarding companies where it hurts. I see stocks rising and money not being thrown away by IBM, but money thats coming to them for investments in their IP. IBM has been in the game a long time folks, and they have been playing the market right and setting market trends for years. I trust them....hell, I even work for them!

  2. Now *that's* cool. Thanks, IBM! by mrchaotica · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My only question is, is the license revokable?

    --

    "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

  3. Re:sold my soul - read the article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And It will be of great interest to see which patents they let out of the box. Have to wonder if there isn't some underlying spite in it all. Suppose: IBM lets a patent out of the box , but Microsoft and perhaps others currently licenses that very same patent? Implies: whatever Microsoft licenses of IBMs patents they still have to pay for, as long as they keep their source closed. Whereas some new OpenSource startup or other gets it for free, as long as they opne the source. Is this away also to force open the hand of the closed source model?

  4. Re:IBM's strategy by Jameth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Other Possible Strategy:

    Make it more difficult for those who only make software to compete with open-source, moving the software realm further to being primarily valuable to solutions companies, of which they are the most successful.

  5. On top of what everyone else has said. by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The way the licence is worded (as I understand it anyway) they help protect IBM and other Open Source software. If you use "Open Source software A" with one of IBMs patents in it and decide to leverage your own patents against "Open source software B" then IBM can make life difficult for you by revoking your right to use the patent in software A.

    I guess it's a sort of "mutually assured destruction" which should stop discourage people from firing their lawyers off willy nilly.

    The only thing I can think of is that strictly speaking such a revocable patent licence of any sort might make it unuseable under the current GPL.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  6. Re:Now *that's* cool. Thanks, IBM! by andreMA · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Sue us and leave yourself liable to being stomped by IBM.
    That's what I get out of it - a Samson Option. Inspired by SCO, I'm sure.
  7. IBM could block the whole MS patent scare... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What would be really cool is if IBM reworked its cross licensing agreements it has with big companies like Microsoft to say that they can only use IBM's patents if they extend their cross license to allow open source products to be used.

    MS is still a relative newcomer to patents, but IBM is an old pro. As there are surely hundreds or thousands of patents IBM owns that are used by Windows, Office, etc. and probably only dozens that IBM software would make use of, IBM has the strong hand and could do this.

    Think of how Linux's growth could be helped over the next few years if the overhang of MS lawsuits was removed, and their ability to embrace and extend using patents was curtailed? Maybe I'm dreaming, but its a good dream!

  8. I have a question... (Prior Art) by Vo0k · · Score: 5, Interesting


    Imagine this scenario:
    - party A releases Free Software program implementing some technique.
    - party B patents the technique.
    - party B releases the patent for free use in Free Software.
    - party C challenges the patent claim, indicating A as author of prior art.
    - A would definitely better like B to hold the patent in current state than C to have it challenged (A's program gets protected under the patent rights that way)

    Can C succeed in challenging the patent claim?

    --
    Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"