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Red Hat Patenting Around Open Standards

Posted by Soulskill on from the tread-lightly dept.

I Believe in Unicorns writes "Red Hat's patent policy says 'In an attempt to protect and promote the open source community, Red Hat has elected to... develop a corresponding portfolio of software patents for defensive purposes. We do so reluctantly...' Meanwhile, USPTO Application #: 20090063418, 'Method and an apparatus to deliver messages between applications,' claims a patent on routing messages using an XQuery match, which is an extension of the 'unencumbered' AMQP protocol that Red Hat is helping to make. Is this a defensive patent, or is Red Hat cynically staking out a software patent claim to an obvious extension of AMQP? Is Red Hat's promise to 'refrain from enforcing the infringed patent' against open source a reliable contract, or a trap for the unwary? Given the Microsoft-Red Hat deal in February, are we seeing Red Hat's 'Novell Moment?'" Reader Defeat_Globalism contributes a related story about an international research team who conducted experiments to "quantify the ways patent systems and market forces might influence someone to invent and solve intellectual problems." Their conclusion was that a system which doesn't restrict prizes to the winner provides more motivation for innovation.

2 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It always starts out with good intentions by MSG · · Score: 4, Informative

    If RedHat was really serious about the patents being defensive, wouldn't it make sense for them to donate them to an open source patent pool?

    As Red Hat is a member of the Open Invention Network, a group dedicated to creating a pool of defensive patents, that is likely to happen.

  2. Red Hat's deal is nearly the complete opposite by crush · · Score: 4, Informative

    Novell agreed that Microsoft had a valid claim that Linux infringed Microsoft patents and paid Microsoft for the use of said (unspecified, undisclosed, vaporware) patents.

    Red Hat by contrast did not sign a joint agreement with microsoft but set up co-ordinated support for customers who use either Red Hat guest instances on Microsoft servers or Microsoft guests on Red Hat servers. They explicitly " ... have nothing to do with patents, and there are no patent rights or other open source licensing rights implications provided under these agreements. The agreements contain no financial clauses other than test fees for industry-standard certification and validation."

    Microsoft realized that they would be frustrating customers if they did not do this. Red Hat realizes the same thing. Neither Microsoft nor Red Hat conceded anything about patents in this relationship.

    The difference between the Novell-Microsoft pact and the current story is so vast that the original post is either a troll or a very confused person.