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Five Linux Companies Buy Software Patents

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the giving-back dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In order to protect themselves against patent grabbing 'trolls,' major Linux companies are buying software patents through a nonprofit company called Open Invention Network. This nonprofit company will then offer royalty-free licenses to companies and individuals that agreed not to assert their own patents."

5 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. The five companies are :- by wongqc · · Score: 2, Informative

    The five companies are :

    1) International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)
    2) Sony Corp
    3) Philips Electronics NV
    4) Novell Inc. (SUSE)
    5) Red Hat Inc

  2. I knew I recognised this by myspys · · Score: 4, Informative

    Fresh from yesterday/a

  3. Gentlemen, start your engines by gringer · · Score: 3, Informative

    Okay, so the way to get modded up for comments to this post, is to pick a +5 comment from the following post, then give it a slightly different spin to account for the 23 hours passed since then:

    http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/10/ 1321238&tid=136&tid=233&tid=106

    I guess it's not a complete dupe... the linked article for this post is different.

    --
    Ask me about repetitive DNA
  4. That Didn't Take Long by campaign_bug · · Score: 2, Informative

    The story the other day seemed to indicate they were just going to try to protect their customers from litigation. I read that as "providing legal backing" etc., as opposed to actually buying all the patents!

  5. USTPO never wanted to grant software paten by MECC · · Score: 4, Informative

    The patent office never wanted to grant patents for software. They were forced to do so by the supreme court in the 1981 Diamond v. Diehr.[bitlaw.com]

    --
    "We are all geniuses when we dream"
    - E.M. Cioran