IBM shares mind

Computerworld magazine on Wednesday wrote about a kind act of goodwill, which went to the largest holder of patents in the IT industry, IBM. In order to achieve better interoperability and interchangeability of software in such important areas as security and web services, as well as for the speedy spread of service-oriented software architecture ( SOA ), Blue Giant released more than 200 of its patented technologies. On the basis of these ready-made and fairly common solutions, the company proposes to create a number of standards that will seriously facilitate the life of developers, unifying the very foundations of the latest trends in the development of soft engineering.

The list of exempted patents covers, for example, technologies such as SOAP, SAML, XML Schema and SCA. Not all of them were fully developed within the walls of IBM, however, the company has the full right to transfer them to free public use and to guarantee everyone who wants them to use the absence of any prosecution for violation of intellectual property rights.

The consequence of this will be, above all, reducing the headache for those who have implemented these standards in their work. The fact is that earlier IBM required to go through a compulsory licensing procedure, which, although it was fairly simple, was still ignored by a significant number of developers.
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In 2005, IBM has already transferred 500 of its patents in favor of the open source community. If such promotions become regular, it can inspire other large companies to share part of their mental baggage for the benefit of everyone.