IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
IBM's commitment not only applies to the distributors, developers or manufacturers that are implementing the specifications involved, but also extends to their users or customers. It is valid as long as adopters are not suing any party -- not just IBM -- over necessary patented technology needed to implement the standards."
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IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
Posted Jul 11, 2007 14:12 UTC (Wed) by mattdm (subscriber, #18) [Link]
For the lazy, here's the list of covered standards. In a word, "XML".
IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
Posted Jul 11, 2007 15:57 UTC (Wed) by mmarq (guest, #2332) [Link]
See... and no specific written deals needed!...
I believe its the equivalent of the BSD license for patents, as long as they end up in a certified standard... great.
IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
Posted Jul 11, 2007 16:04 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Of course in a sane legal environment this would be unnecessary.
In fact, while this is nice, it's not actually very useful, because IBM was never likely to sue free software hackers over XML anyway, and they still have a vast collection to sue anyone else they like over. Meanwhile the patent trolls (whether the purchase-and-patent, invent-and-patent or repatent-the-bleeding-obvious varieties) will just keep on going, unaffected, and invulnerable to patent countersuits to boot.
IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
Posted Jul 11, 2007 16:13 UTC (Wed) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link]
"""In fact, while this is nice, it's not actually very useful, because IBM was never likely to sue free software hackers over XML anyway,"""
Well, you never know. Corporations have a way of changing strategies the way most of us change underwear. (Most of us can change underwear with fewer press releases and less market-speak, though.)
It *is* nice to have this publicly available covenant on record.
IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
Posted Jul 11, 2007 17:01 UTC (Wed) by riel (subscriber, #3142) [Link]
It appears to cover more than free software: all implementations of freestandards.
Want to implement ODF? IBM will not sue you over your software
implementing ODF, even if they happen to have a patent under some
underlying technology (not saying they have, but who knows).
Want to sue somebody else over their ODF implementation? Your IBM patent
license automatically expires. Sue at your own peril.
At least, that is how I understood it :)
IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
Posted Jul 12, 2007 3:05 UTC (Thu) by sitaram (guest, #5959) [Link]
I dont think the objective is to say "I won't sue free software hackers". It is to say, "if you think you can sure free software hackers over anything covered in these technologies that you happen to or claim to own, we'll come after you with our claims"
IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
Posted Jul 12, 2007 10:27 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
Aha. That's much more useful.
It still won't keep off the pure patent trolls though: they don't produce
anything but patents so can't be in violation of anything...
IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
Posted Jul 14, 2007 3:50 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (guest, #1954) [Link]
Right. The smart manufacturer that wants to use IBM's free patent license and still extract money from free software users of its own patent would sell its claim (or the very patent if need be) to someone else rather than file the lawsuit itself.Just about any time someone targets "suing" as the thing that must be stopped, he doesn't know what he's doing, because the lawsuit isn't the problem. It's the liability/property right that's the problem.
IBM pledges free access to patents for standards
Posted Jul 11, 2007 16:05 UTC (Wed) by sbergman27 (guest, #10767) [Link]
I'm taking bets as to how long it will take for a response to show up in Jonathan Schwartz's blog.