Open Sources | Rodrigues & Urlocker » Maybe Microsoft has the patent problem?

November 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Maybe Microsoft has the patent problem?

TAGS: Microsoft

All this patent talk has been around the idea that Linux and other OSS might be in violation of Microsoft patent claims. But maybe Microsoft is trying to make the deals to avoid litigation against it's own products.

No company would go forth and present a list of what third-party technologies its patents infringed, Kaefer said, adding though that there is some acknowledgement on the part of Microsoft of the reality that there are a lot of patents in existence, "and we would rather have certainty and transact that certainty for value than to sit on the sidelines and wait for problems to occur. We don't want t subject our customers to that," he said.

When asked to identify any Linux or other open source or code that Microsoft believed violated its patents, as well as to say where it was found and in which distribution it was included, Kaefer evaded the issue, saying that no company in the open-source or proprietary field went through every product and looked at every patent claim they might or might not assert. "I just don't think that's productive," he said.

Link eWeek:
Is Microsoft Violating Some Patents Covering Open Source?

Posted by Dave Rosenberg on November 22, 2006 04:43 PM

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