Microsoft Joins Open Invention Network (OIN), Will Grant a Royalty-Free and Unrestricted License To Its Entire Patent Portfolio To All Other OIN Members (globenewswire.com)

Microsoft said Wednesday it had joined the Open Invention Network (OIN), an open-source patent consortium. As part of it, the company has essentially agreed to grant a royalty-free and unrestricted license to its entire patent portfolio to all other OIN members. From the press release: By joining OIN, Microsoft is demonstrating its commitment to open source software (OSS) and innovation through collaborative development. With more than 2,650 members [Editor's note: the members include Google, IBM, Red Hat, and SUSE], including numerous Fortune 500 enterprises, OIN is the largest patent non-aggression community in history and represents a core set of community values related to open source licensing, which has become the norm. "Open source development continues to expand into new products and markets to create unrivaled levels of innovation. Through its participation in OIN, Microsoft is explicitly acknowledging the importance of open source software to its future growth," said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. "Microsoft's participation in OIN adds to our strong community, which through its breadth and depth has reduced patent risk in core technologies, and unequivocally signals for all companies who are using OSS but have yet to join OIN that the litmus test for authentic behavior in the OSS community includes OIN participation."

Erich Andersen, Corporate Vice President and Chief IP Counsel at Microsoft, said, "Microsoft sees open source as a key innovation engine, and for the past several years we have increased our involvement in, and contributions to, the open source community. We believe the protection OIN offers the open source community helps increase global contributions to and adoption of open source technologies. We are honored to stand with OIN as an active participant in its program to protect against patent aggression in core Linux and other important OSS technologies." Further reading: Why Microsoft may be relinquishing billions in Android patent royalties.

Comments

Re:I don't understand

[Anonymous Coward]

It's most likely because their useful patents life is coming to an end. Remember Patents only last 17 years, what was 17 years ago? Windows 2000/Windows ME. Take note of the compatibility level of ReactOS and WINE.

At some point, very soon, the OSS community will be able to re-implement Windows XP's API's, and damn near everything but games needs only XP level compatibility to work. Games still need the extended DirectX API, but XP is DirectX9 at most, which covers basically every non-64bit windows game.

So Microsoft might be looking at trying to stem some blood loss should a "Windows XP compatible OS" come out of nowhere. Good god there's multi-billion dollar multi-national enterprise businesses that would love to stop having to upgrade Windows versions, and if ReactOS could fill that with a look-and-feel on top of compatibility, Microsoft will be the first on a long list of software vendors to see their "subscription bullshit" revenue streams start to be eroded.

The entire reason enterprises prefer subscription schemes is because it makes it less of a pain in the ass to track how many copies of AutoCAD, Adobe CC and MS Office you have. You simply pay for X many licenses of the machines you actually have, rather than paying once for the software, and then having to throw the entire machine out, software and all, because you can't transfer the license, or the obstacle to transferring the license costs a few hundred dollars in some technicians time.

Re:Interesting but...

[alvinrod]

Perhaps it is because as they continue to transition towards selling subscriptions to their software and the like, it doesn't hurt them to join, especially if it means that they get free use of all of the IBM patents that might be useful in expanding into other service areas without having to worry about litigation. Perhaps these companies are waking up to the fact that the billion dollar lawsuits over technology patents drag on for years, often to a point where the technology isn't even relevant and that the only people who actually get anything after the smoke clears are the lawyers. Those are two easy guesses, but not necessarily good.

After doing some additional reading, I'm not even sure if the summary is correct. If you look at the OIN website it just talks about Linux. The do have a list of all of their owned patents which does include some that were developed by Microsoft. Perhaps they tossed a few out there as a show of goodwill, but I'm not certain that this gives every member royalty-free licenses to all of Microsoft's (or other member companies) patents.

The Business Environment has changed

[PineHall]

I agree with what you are saying, however I think the business environment has changed, not so much Microsoft. Microsoft has always been about maximizing profits. Twenty years ago they were the big 800 lb gorilla. They did what they wanted to make more money. Today they are competing in a field of equals and they are trying to remain relevant with the new computing paradigms. So now they have to behave nicely to maximize profits. They decided that joining OIN was worth more than the royalties they would have collected from OIN members. I believe they will still try to collect royalties from non-OIN companies. It is all about the money.

Linux and ExFat?

[jonwil]

Does this mean Linux can now support ExFat? (the new file system that replaced Fat32 as standard for things like memory cards)