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Sun Grants Access to 1,600+ Patents

Posted by timothy on from the read-that-fine-print-closely dept.

Insane_zoD writes "Looks like Sun is attempting to keep up with IBM in opening up patents for FOSS-based projects. From the news release: 'By giving open source developers free access to Sun OpenSolaris related patents under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL), the company is fostering open innovation and establishing a leadership role in the framework of a patent commons that will be recognized across the globe.'"

2 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Not as good as IBM by borgheron · · Score: 5, Informative

    Sun, according to thier license, reserves the right to sue if the software is released under another license. :)

    IBM opened the 500 patents it opened without restriction.

    GJC

    --
    Gregory Casamento
    ## Chief Maintainer for GNUstep
  2. Patents can be enforced against Linux by Bruce+Perens · · Score: 5, Informative
    I confirmed with Sun's PR person for this release (at Byte Communications), that the patents are only for use with software under the CDDL license and the OpenSolaris process. The patents can be enforced against GPL software, including Linux. In contrast, the IBM grant was for any OSI-accepted license.

    Bruce

    --
    Bruce Perens.