Report: Rivals eye Microsoft's former Linux patents

Microsoft has at times alleged patent infringement in its attempts to stifle certain Linux-based applications. But one group is hoping to fight back by using Microsoft's own former patents.

The Open Invention Network (OIN), a group made up of Microsoft competitors and Linux advocates,said it's close an agreement to buy 22 patents that Microsoft sold to another organization earlier this year. According to Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, the patents may relate to Linux.

The OIN believes that getting these patents is critical to protecting Linux developers from costly lawsuits, according to the Journal. The concern is that otherwise the patents could be grabbed by patent trolls, which will then try to make money from patent-infringement lawsuits.

The group that currently owns the patents, Allied Security Trust, buys them to protect its members from lawsuits. Composed of such companies as Google, Hewlett-Packard, Verizon Communications, and Cisco Systems, Allied Security Trust bought the patents in a private auction held by Microsoft. The Journal reports that Microsoft presented the patents to potential bidders as relating to Linux.

Microsoft has said that it holds more than 50,000 patents, according to the Journal, and that it believes 200 of those are violated by Linux applications.

Over the past few years, Microsoft has signed deals with several open-source companies in which they pay Microsoft money to protect themselves from intellectual property claims.

The OIN's goal is to promote and protect Linux by using patents that allow for free and open collaboration. The group says its patents are available to any company or individual that agrees not to assert those patents against Linux. The idea is to help developers use Linux without having to worry about violating existing patents.

The OIN is trying to use such cases as the recent lawsuit between Microsoft and GPS-maker Tom Tom to prevent similar actions against Linux-based apps. Although Tom Tom settled with Microsoft, the OIN is concerned that the case may establish a precedent.

Started in 2005, the OIN counts among its members IBM, Sony, and Red Hat. Over the years, other powerhouses have joined, including Oracle, Google, and most recently Tom Tom.

[Ted Miller]

We should ALL just say NO to this consistent stupidness that we face every day. What if everyone just said NO to Microsoft, Linux and Apple and start throwing our computers, cell phones and pagers into the streets and then say enough is enough. This is all getting so sickning in these difficult times that we are living in.

[Michichael]

You do that. The rest of us will continue living in the real world. :)

[SBartell]

I'll give up my cell phone when they pry it from my cold, dead hands!

[Vegaman_Dan]

I'm sure it's Microsoft's fault in some way, even if they have nothing to do with this sale. It's just easier to blame them for all and anything associated with such things these days. :)

[CrashPad63]

Now wait just a cotton pickne minute. MS has nothing to do with the weather, so we cannot blame them for that!!!

[Phoenix_Knight005]

Oh please! It's common knowledge that Microsoft built a weather control machine back in the late 90's.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Well, it's rumored that the size of Ballmer's ego has affected weather patterns in the past so I can't really disclaim that possibility...

[dhtechs]

Ballmer's ego?..Maybe that is why Bill Gates wants to control hurricanes

[inachu1]

Its Bill Gates fault we lost all the seeds of the world to copyright. Even farmers who donated seeds to billlgates freezer up north who have been using the seeds for thousands of years now have ZERO protection from copyright lawyers at Mosantos and such.

Same move here. We need to make a precident to keep Companies doing to software code as to what companies have done to Billy Gates Seed vault and raiding it and calling it their own.

[BSinton]

I know as much about copyright , or rather , as little as inachu1, but I think it is Monsanto , and it would be patent and not copyright.

I assume that any seeds of plants that have been allegedly used for thousands of years (seems to stretch the imagination a bit) will be given a Patient.

Hot news- I have planted some "Early Girl" tomatoes that have a Monsanto trade mark
They are Hybrids!

Good luck to Bill , it is unkind of people to call him greedy, monopolist and unethical . Shame, shame.

[pj-mckay]

It's just a pity the Alliance couldn't just hold them for the 'common good'. Maybe they could be trusted to hold them, but only enforce them if some devious outfit came along and tried to benefit from them without paying. Trust though is a word which is pretty meaningless in these days of looking after number 1 to the detriment of anything else.

I don't know that there's anything the Linux troupe would gain from holding them apart from enforcing them willy nilly, then we'll be back to square one. I'd prefer them all to be held in some 'trust' fund.

[RavingEniac]

My cat was hopping around the living room when suddenly, in midair, it stopped and turned bright blue. I was startled and called my vet and he asked if it was a Microsoft cat. He was right, it was. He suggested booting the cat, so I booted it and it went back to normal after bouncing off the wall.

I don't like the idea of patented software, patented DNA and genetic engineering. Do we really want people of the sort who made blue screens of death to tinker with the stuff of living things and the liivng environment in which they and we exist?

[rockin57]

So Microsoft is now in the protection racket? Didn't there used to be laws against that? I guess not anymore. They sell you protection, force you to buy it from them to protect you from them, now that makes sense.