Open Source Blog

Oracle shows Microsoft how a patent covenant should look
March 27, 2007

I’ve voiced my skepticism about Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux proposition and Larry Ellison’s attitude towards open source in the past, but there are signs that the company is making an effort to become a better open source citizen.

The latest is that it has become a licensee of the Open Invention Network, the open source patent stockpiling and sharing initiative formed by IBM, Red Hat, Novell, Sony and Philips in late 2005.

Whatever your stance on software patents, the fact is that they are an issue that has to be dealt with. Oracle’s license with the OIN proves that there is a way to reach a patent peace with Linux without dividing the Linux community.

While the company has not pledged any of its own patents to the OIN at this time, the terms of the license mean that it has pledged not to assert its patent portfolio against Linux, according to the announcement:

“Patents owned by Open Invention Network are available royalty-free to any company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against the Linux System. This enables companies like Oracle to continue to make significant corporate and capital expenditure investments in Linux - helping to fuel economic growth.”

"We have been active members of the Linux development community for years," commented Oracle chief corporate architect, Edward Screven. "We believe licensing Open Invention Network's patents provides assurance to anyone working to make Linux better, including Oracle.”

The terms of the OIN license can be found here while a list of the Linux components covered by the license (including MySQL, PostrgreSQL and Apache incidentally) can be found here and the patents owned by the OIN can be found here.

Of course Novell is a member of the OIN (in fact it seeded the patent stockpile with an initial set of business-to-business e-commerce patents quietly acquired from the bankrupt Commerce One for $15.5m in December 2004) and the OIN’s CEO Jerry Rosenthal has spoken out against Novell's patent covenant agreement with Microsoft.

If Microsoft does want to give Linux users peace of mind that it will not be suing them for patent infringement, it need only have taken out an OIN license it seems, and it could also have saved itself $108m to ensure its customers would not be sued by Novell for code that may or may not be in Windows, that may or may not infringe Novell patents.

But then what’s $108m for the chance to spread a little FUD.