Open Invention Network

Open Invention Network

URL = http://www.openinventionnetwork.com

Description

New York (November 10, 2005) - Open Invention Network (OIN), a company that has and will acquire patents and offer them royalty-free to promote Linux and spur innovation globally, was launched today with financial support from IBM, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, and Sony. The company, believed to be the first of its kind, is creating a new model where patents are openly shared in a collaborative environment and used to facilitate the advancement of applications for, and components of, the Linux operating system.

"Open collaboration is critical for driving innovation, which fuels global economic growth. Impediments to collaboration on the Linux operating system seriously jeopardize innovation. A new model of intellectual property management for Linux must be established to maintain advances in software innovation - regardless of the size or type of business or organization," said Jerry Rosenthal, chief executive officer at Open Invention Network. The company will foster an open, collaborative environment that stimulates advances in Linux - helping ensure the continuation of global innovation that has benefited software vendors, customers, emerging markets and investors, among others.

Patents owned by Open Invention Network will be available on a royalty-free basis to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux operating system or certain Linux-related applications.

Discussion

Very strong critique by Florian Mueller at

1. http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/06/oins-linux-system-only-constant-is.html
2. http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/05/open-invention-network-oin-demystified.html

"To someone who understands what reasonable license agreements looks like, this shows that the people who conceptualized the OIN had nothing good in mind. They designed a mechanism that is unfair to a despicable extent. They built in a backdoor so they would be able to use the OIN for future purposes that could even harm developers, distributors and users of Linux and other open source software.

The ones who have the prerogative to redefine the "Linux System" are the six companies who effectively own the OIN (IBM, Philips, Sony, NEC, Red Hat, Novell). I don't know whether they have to reach a unanimous agreement among the six to make changes to that definition. Maybe a majority is sufficient. Maybe IBM contributed most of the money and can change it singlehandedly. Who knows. They don't tell.

The current version of the list of program files that constitute the "Linux System" is available on this webpage. For each file, they also specify a program version. For an example, by the time I'm writing this, the version of PostgreSQL that's part of the list is version 8.1.0 (by the time you read this, this may already have changed). If you infringe any OIN patent with any other version of PostgreSQL than the one on the list, you're at risk.

They don't even have an obligation to notify you. It's your responsibility to reload that list all the time and see if anything has changed, or else you're at risk.

This means that PostgreSQL's developers, when adding new features, don't even know if they will face patent problems with the OIN when finished. Again, PostgreSQL is just an example. There are many other projects that face the same problem." (http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/06/oins-linux-system-only-constant-is.html)

Status Update

• August 2009: http://www.h-online.com/open/Open-Invention-Network-starts-buying-patents--/news/113918

More Information

• Article: Open Invention Network: A Defensive Patent Pool for Open Source Projects and Businesses. Deborah Nicholson. Tim Review, January 2012.

URL = http://timreview.ca/article/511