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IBM Opens Their Patent Portfolio to Open Source
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."
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?
Wow - this is the first story that has made me get a subscription to New York Times.
Good stuff, IBM!! *
* Google - please retract this post from the archives in 12 years when IBM turns into the new evil corporation again
You can't expect to wield supreme executive power, just because some watery tart threw a sword at you
My only question is, is the license revokable?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
A) These things may have been patented before they decided to do this
B) They don't have to worry about someone else patenting them
C) They're only opening them up for open-source projects, meaning IBM projects can use them and open-source projects can use them, but IBM's closed-source competitors can't.
Twenties Retirement
IBM's tactic: Apply for U.S. patents on methods used in software and then license them royalty-free for use in free software.
IBM's possible strategies behind the tactic:
Heck, open source programmers were even using the patents before Microsoft applied for them!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
If Microsoft did this or open up their sources it could set FOSS back years. Thank you MS for being selfish.
"brxref
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Goodwill from a lot of developers can help the company in intangible ways, improving the bottom line and thus the stock.
Perahps the greater exposure of the patents will lead to more commercial adoption of some, also bringing in more money.
It's not "Giving away the IP library" as far as Wall Street is concerned because everyone knows you can't charge money for open source software! How could it compete against closed source stuff?
The reality we can keep between ourselves (though the final reality is that Wall Street will not even notice, I'm afraid).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Is this not like, you first hit is free???
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?
Father-in-law: You can't just give away your work! That doesn't make any sense!
Me: Maybe not to you, but IBM likes the idea so much that they're even letting us use their patents for free.
FIL: IBM? Really? Huh - they're not exactly a pack of hippies, are they?
One of the most conservative companies in the USA has publically and loudly proclaimed that sharing IP with your friends, neighbors, and even competitors is a good thing for profits (as long as you do it on level terms). Every time I hear some proprietary advocate spouting about how you can't make money by giving things away, I'm going to respond with "IBM says you're wrong" until they shut up or go away.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
By first reading it is better than irrevocable. It is revocable only in the case that you take action against a free software project. Free software developers would seem to be able to use these 500 patents as a form of patent defence by saying: "Sue us and leave yourself liable to being stomped by IBM." Unfortunately you will have to convince IBM to litigate in your defence.
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
Whatever the intent of the patent system, right now its main use is for threatening other companies into cross-licensing agreements. Which is where Open Source comes a cropper, because it's not a legal entity that can enter into such agreements, and has no patents to cross-license.
But IBM's pledge works around that, by providing some patents for OSS to work with, and showing how to 'cross-licence' even without an OSS legal entity.
In fact, it might be the start of a 'viral' subversion of the patent system, in just the way that the GPL is for copyright. Imagine a time in a few years, where a lot of companies have done the same thing that IBM does. Each of those companies is then committed to the OSS patent pool, and can't threaten any OSS with a lawsuit on any particular patent without losing access to all the rest. And of course, the more companies that join in, the more patents are in the pool, and the more attractive it becomes.
What's important now is how other companies react to this now. If a few more come on board, this could be the Start Of Something Big!
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
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!
Of course it is possible that the move is a pure PR stunt, and the patents are worthless anyway. But I'm not that cynical.
Both the zSeries and S/390 series.
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"