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."

Comments

Sweet!

[dolo666]

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?

Re:Sweet!

[Anonymous Coward]

How many of you remember when IBM were the bad guys?

Weren't they the bad guys last week? I can never keep up.

Re:Sweet!

[mrchaotica]

You make a good point, but considering how much IBM benefits from Linux already, and how all that benefit would be lost if the community died, Wall Street ought to see this as a sound strategic decision by IBM.

Oh, and by the way -- considering that it's 500 patents out of 40,000, you've got a really strange definition of "most."

Re:Sweet!

[Total_Wimp]

Responsible investing in companies that improve society, sure ... but irrationally throwing away your money?

It seems IBM forsees a future in which software is commoditized. This doesn't bother them because they sell lots and lots of hardware. It seems they believe they will sell even more hardware if people aren't "wasting" their money on software.

See the cycle? If much of the money that previously went to Redmond goes to them instead, do you see how they just might make a buck or two?

Open source changes the notion of who will make money. IBM has made major moves to make sure they will be the bennefactors of this change. They have a much better chance at dramatically increased riches than almost any other "linux vendor" you can name.

TW

Re:Sweet!

[domenic v1.0]

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!

Re:Sweet!

[killjoe]

" You're insane if you think IBM's push into Open Source is being done for any idealistic reasons of Good vs Evil."

Read my sig. Evil is as evil does. If IBM is doing good then it makes the world a better place. It does not matter what their intentions are.

Acts are what matters. Acts are what we judge. If IBM gets to make a ton of money by doing good then more power to them. I will definately support that. The alternative is to try and make money buy lying, cheating, stealing, suing, and cpreading evil and chaos which is what MS and SCO does.

Why wouldn't you support IBM over MS/SCO? Really I want to know.

Re:Sweet!

[femto]

> Why do they feel like a has-been?

Because IBM seems to have decided the future is in software services, not writing software. Let the geeks write the software then IBM will make a pile of money telling companies what software they need, putting all the bits together, installing it then maintaining it.

Re:Sweet!

[Anonymous Coward]

I like Windows XP Home Edition.

It is the most powerful operating-system for Pee Cees. It looks not as gay as Mac OS X by Steve B10 Jobs and has 1,0000,0000 times more softwares that the Linus-operating-system.

Plus, it comes with every Pee Cee for free. People who have grown acusstomt to paying RatHat 699 $$$ or more can hardly beleive this when I consult them with my proffesional Internet- and Network-Service-Center-Bureau.

I always tell them:
"Windows XP Home Edition is all you can empower to leverage the outcome-bottomlime of your stickholder ... plus even more!"

My customers usually are like: "OMG!"

You should really try it one day; it has a very nice light-reddish color theme to hit your tastes.

Thank you!

Re:Sweet!

[Anonymous Coward]

Responsible investing in companies that improve society, sure ... but irrationally throwing away your money?

Exactly how many open-source projects currently pay IBM for patent licenses? And how many do you expect to pay in future?

IBM is losing nothing here. What they have gained is a great deal of goodwill, and given open-source development a boost. Remember they have a great deal of experience in bulding upon open-source projects, where there competitors generally do not - so anything good for open-source is good for IBM at the moment.

This is a smart move by smart people, and it follows in the footsteps of other smart moves. This is an indicator that IBM really understands how open-source can help their business, and if IBM continue in this fashion, they will make a great deal of money while the rest of the world catches up with them in the open-source stakes.

That is why this encourages people to invest.

Re:Sweet!

[FreakWent]

Now that they sold the PC business, they don't need MS any more.

They don't do desktops.

They want consulting, and the better the GPL software is, the better they can compete against Novell with Suse, against Oracle, SAP and Sun.

Wow!

[MrRTFM]

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

Re:Why even patent anything?

[wmspringer]

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.

IBM's strategy

[tepples]

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:

• Encourage development of free software for IBM hardware and service platforms.
• Fund development of free software with royalties collected from publishers of proprietary software using the methods in question.
• Protect free software from patent suits by retaliating against those who use patents against IBM or against free software.

Re:Nice, now if only M$ would open their patents

[mrchaotica]

Heck, open source programmers were even using the patents before Microsoft applied for them!

If Microsoft did this..

[yorkpaddy]

If Microsoft did this or open up their sources it could set FOSS back years. Thank you MS for being selfish.

Re:Now *that's* cool. Thanks, IBM!

[Chuck Chunder]

They are only revocable from people who seek to leverage patents against Open Source themselves first. From the PDF:

IBM's Legally Binding Commitment Not To Assert the 500 Named Patents Against OSS

The pledge will benefit any Open Source Software. Open Source Software is any computer software program whose source code is published and available for inspection and use by anyone, and is made available under a license agreement that permits recipients to copy, modify and distribute the programs source code without payment of fees or royalties. All licenses certified by opensource.org and listed on their website as of 01/11/2005 are Open Source Software licenses for the purpose of this pledge..

Subject to the exception provided below, and with the intent that developers, users and distributors of Open Source Software rely on our promise, IBM hereby commits not to assert any of the 500 U.S. patents listed above, as well as all counterparts of these patents issued in other countries against the development, use or distribution of Open Source Software.

In order to foster innovation and avoid the possibility that a party will take advantage of this pledge and then assert patents or other intellectual property rights of its own against Open Source Software, thereby limiting the freedom of IBM or any other Open Source Software developer to create innovative software programs, or the freedom of others to distribute and use Open Source Software, the commitment not to assert any of these 500 U.S. patents and all counterparts of these patents issued in other countries is irrevocable except that IBM reserves the right to terminate this patent pledge and commitment only with regard to any party who files a lawsuit asserting patents or other intellectual property rights against Open Source Software

Mmm...

[DoChEx]

Is this not like, you first hit is free???

Re:sold my soul - read the article

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

With any luck, IBM is the first of many

[gidds]

Looks like a really clever move.

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!

IBM could block the whole MS patent scare...

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

I have a question... (Prior Art)

[Vo0k]

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?