Microsoft announced that it has shared 60000 open-source patents to avoid lawsuit. The company is joined with Open Invention Network.
Erich Andersen, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, has anoounced the news today. The authorities are hoping that this move will bring a healthy result across Linus and the open-source company.
In an interview, Scott Guthrie, vice president of cloud said that, We want to protect open-source projects from IP lawsuits, so we’re opening our patent portfolio to the OIN.”
The microsoft is the defender of 2,650 companies and now it is adding it’s own technology portfolio to OIN’s patent defense pool. This group includes startups, individual developers, and the biggest tech firms in the world.
Android vendors were pressured to ink deals, forcing them to pay royalties to Microsoft.In 2001, Microsoft’s previous CEO Steve Ballmer also famously derided Linux as a “cancer” on intellectual property.
OIN only had ownership of 1,300 global patents.
“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 programmes,” Andersen said.
The company had ranked in 2015 in $6bn just from Android patent royalties. Beside that, it’s a wholly refreshing decision.
CEO of OIN, Keith Bergelt said, “Open source development continues to expand into new products and markets to create unrivaled levels of innovation. Through its participation in OIN, Microsoft is explicitly acknowledging the importance of open source software to its future growth.”
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Microsoft Shares 60k Patents to Help Linux
