Microsoft joins the Open Invention Network, a mutual patent protection society, and is bringing along 60,000 patents as a housewarming gift.

Mitch Wagner, Executive Editor, Light Reading

October 11, 2018

2 Min Read
Microsoft: We 'Pledge Our Entire Patent Portfolio' to Linux

Microsoft is joining the Open Invention Network, a community of companies that pool their intellectual property to protect Linux and other open source software programs from patent risk. And Microsoft is bringing 60,000 patents to the table.

It's a big step in Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT)'s transition from outright hostility to open source, to embracing the technology and community. (See How Microsoft Became an Unlikely Open Source Champion, Microsoft Is a 'Deeply Open Source Company,' Says Azure CTO Russinovich and Microsoft Swears GitHub Independence After $7.5B Acquisition.)

"We know Microsoft's decision to join OIN may be viewed as surprising to some; it is no secret that there has been friction in the past between Microsoft and the open source community over the issue of patents," Erich Anderson, Microsoft corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, said in a blog post announcing the change Wednesday. "For others who have followed our evolution, we hope this announcement will be viewed as the next logical step for a company that is listening to customers and developers and is firmly committed to Linux and other open source programs."

Figure 1: Microsoft Ignite conference in September. Microsoft Ignite conference in September.

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Microsoft's joining OIN essentially means it's granting a "royalty-free, worldwide, nonexclusive non-transferable license" to its patents, according to the OIN license agreement.

Before Microsoft joined, OIN had more than 2,650 community members, including Google, IBM, Red Hat and SUSE, my friend Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports on ZDNet. Anderson told Vaughan-Nichols: "We pledge our entire patent portfolio to the Linux system. That's not just the Linux kernel, but other packages built on it."

Microsoft made about $3.4 billion from Android patents in 2014, with Samsung alone paying $1 billion, Vaughan-Nichols says.

— Mitch Wagner Follow me on Twitter Visit my LinkedIn profile Visit me on Tumblr Follow me on Facebook Executive Editor, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Mitch Wagner

Executive Editor, Light Reading

San Diego-based Mitch Wagner is many things. As well as being "our guy" on the West Coast (of the US, not Scotland, or anywhere else with indifferent meteorological conditions), he's a husband (to his wife), dissatisfied Democrat, American (so he could be President some day), nonobservant Jew, and science fiction fan. Not necessarily in that order.

He's also one half of a special duo, along with Minnie, who is the co-habitor of the West Coast Bureau and Light Reading's primary chewer of sticks, though she is not the only one on the team who regularly munches on bark.

Wagner, whose previous positions include Editor-in-Chief at Internet Evolution and Executive Editor at InformationWeek, will be responsible for tracking and reporting on developments in Silicon Valley and other US West Coast hotspots of communications technology innovation.

Beats: Software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), IP networking, and colored foods (such as 'green rice').

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