Now that the computer industry has its first accounting of how many patents Microsoft says are violated by open-source software, the question for many tech vendors is how aggressively the software giant will begin enforcement. And judging from the reaction in the blogosphere, the new disclosures inspire fear.
Microsoft has already begun collecting payments and gaining access to the patent portfolios of companies that use the open-source Linux operating system in their products. The list includes Novell (NOVL), Fuji Xerox, and Samsung Electronics.
Microsoft sees those agreements as templates for future cross-licensing deals, and it’s rattling a legal saber to gain an edge. When it comes to compensating Microsoft for its intellectual property, discussion is less painful than litigation, according to Horatio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s vice-president of intellectual property and licensing. “The alternatives to licensing are alternatives that aren’t very attractive for anyone,” he says.
Microsoft contends that the Linux operating system and other open-source software programs violate 235 of its patents. The company plans to use that intellectual property to collect royalties from companies that make, distribute, and use Linux. Microsoft’s plans were disclosed in a May 14 article in Fortune.
Linux and other open-source software are covered by the General Public License (GPL), which lets users modify programs’ source code so long as they redistribute their changes to other users. Microsoft says the Linux kernel, which controls the software’s most basic functions, as well as other elements of Linux and open-source productivity and e-mail software infringe on its patents, Fortune reported.
Source: BusinessWeek