The Open Invention Network has more than three thousand licensees - what does this mean for open source software?
The Open Invention Network (OIN) is an organization that owns software patents associated with GNU / Linux. The organization’s goal is to protect Linux and related software from patent lawsuits. Community members transfer their patents to the common pool, thereby allowing other participants to use them on the basis of a royalty-free license.
Photo - j - Unsplash
The founders of the Open Invention Network in 2005 were IBM, NEC, Philips, Red Hat, Sony and SUSE. One of the reasons for the emergence of OIN is Microsoft’s aggressive Linux policy. Representatives of the corporation said that the OS developers violated more than three hundred patents.
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Since then, Microsoft has changed its mind about open source software. Last year, the company even became a member of the Open Invention Network (more about this later.) However, patent disputes in the IT industry have not gone away - companies often change the rules for licensing their products and file lawsuits.
An example would be a litigation between Oracle and Google. Oracle accused Google of illegally using Java and violating seven patents while developing Android. The trial has been going on for almost ten years, with varying success for both companies. Last court in 2018 won Oracle . Now the second company is going to file an appeal and resolve the issue in the US Supreme Court.
To avoid similar situations in the future, more and more organizations (including Google) are joining OIN and sharing their licenses. At the end of June, the number of licensees exceeded three thousand . The list includes companies such as WIRED, Ford and General Motors, SpaceX, GitHub and GitLab, and thousands of others.
More spheres of activity. At the very beginning, only Linux was involved in OIN. With the development of the organization, its activities have affected other areas of open source software. Today, the company’s portfolio includes patents from such areas as mobile payments, blockchain technologies, cloud computing, the Internet of things and automotive developments. With the development of the community, this spectrum will continue to expand.
More open projects. The OIN portfolio has more than two million patents and applications. With the advent of new companies, this number will increase. Jim Zemlin (Jim Zemlin), executive director of the Linux Foundation , once noted that in many ways Linux owes its success to OIN. In the future, OIN will help with the creation of other iconic projects.
Since the beginning of this year, 350 new companies and communities have joined OIN, and over the past two years their number has increased by 50%.
Just last year, Microsoft transferred over 60 thousand of their patents to OIN. According to the general director of the Open Invention Network, they cover almost all of the company's development, both old and new. Examples include technologies related to Android, the Linux kernel and OpenStack, as well as LF Energy and HyperLedger.
Photo - Jungwoo Hong - Unsplash
Also in 2018, two Chinese giants Alibaba and Ant Financial became members of OIN. At about the same time , Tencent, the largest investment company specializing in Internet services, developments in the field of artificial intelligence systems and electronic services, joined OIN. The exact number of patents transferred by companies is unknown. But there is an opinion that there were quite a lot of them, considering the fact that since 2012 China has been leading in the number of patent applications.
Also , a major contract electronics manufacturer from Singapore, Flex, recently joined OIN. The company actively uses Linux in its data centers and in manufacturing plants. Flex representatives say they will do everything possible to protect the free operating system from the risks associated with rights violations.
In general, all Open Invention Network members and project leaders hope that more companies will join them in the future.
Photo - j - Unsplash
What do they do in OIN
The founders of the Open Invention Network in 2005 were IBM, NEC, Philips, Red Hat, Sony and SUSE. One of the reasons for the emergence of OIN is Microsoft’s aggressive Linux policy. Representatives of the corporation said that the OS developers violated more than three hundred patents.
')
Since then, Microsoft has changed its mind about open source software. Last year, the company even became a member of the Open Invention Network (more about this later.) However, patent disputes in the IT industry have not gone away - companies often change the rules for licensing their products and file lawsuits.
An example would be a litigation between Oracle and Google. Oracle accused Google of illegally using Java and violating seven patents while developing Android. The trial has been going on for almost ten years, with varying success for both companies. Last court in 2018 won Oracle . Now the second company is going to file an appeal and resolve the issue in the US Supreme Court.
To avoid similar situations in the future, more and more organizations (including Google) are joining OIN and sharing their licenses. At the end of June, the number of licensees exceeded three thousand . The list includes companies such as WIRED, Ford and General Motors, SpaceX, GitHub and GitLab, and thousands of others.
What does this mean for the industry?
More spheres of activity. At the very beginning, only Linux was involved in OIN. With the development of the organization, its activities have affected other areas of open source software. Today, the company’s portfolio includes patents from such areas as mobile payments, blockchain technologies, cloud computing, the Internet of things and automotive developments. With the development of the community, this spectrum will continue to expand.
More open projects. The OIN portfolio has more than two million patents and applications. With the advent of new companies, this number will increase. Jim Zemlin (Jim Zemlin), executive director of the Linux Foundation , once noted that in many ways Linux owes its success to OIN. In the future, OIN will help with the creation of other iconic projects.
“The activities of the Open Invention Network and the patent protection it provides will contribute to the emergence of new open software products and accelerate their development,” commented Sergey Belkin, head of the project development department at 1cloud.ru . “For example, organizations already own patents that helped create ASP, JSP, and PHP.”
Who recently joined the organization
Since the beginning of this year, 350 new companies and communities have joined OIN, and over the past two years their number has increased by 50%.
Just last year, Microsoft transferred over 60 thousand of their patents to OIN. According to the general director of the Open Invention Network, they cover almost all of the company's development, both old and new. Examples include technologies related to Android, the Linux kernel and OpenStack, as well as LF Energy and HyperLedger.
Photo - Jungwoo Hong - Unsplash
Also in 2018, two Chinese giants Alibaba and Ant Financial became members of OIN. At about the same time , Tencent, the largest investment company specializing in Internet services, developments in the field of artificial intelligence systems and electronic services, joined OIN. The exact number of patents transferred by companies is unknown. But there is an opinion that there were quite a lot of them, considering the fact that since 2012 China has been leading in the number of patent applications.
Also , a major contract electronics manufacturer from Singapore, Flex, recently joined OIN. The company actively uses Linux in its data centers and in manufacturing plants. Flex representatives say they will do everything possible to protect the free operating system from the risks associated with rights violations.
In general, all Open Invention Network members and project leaders hope that more companies will join them in the future.
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Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/459628/
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