The Open Invention Network (OIN), which aims to protect the Linux ecosystem from patent claims, has expanded the list of packages covered by the patent non-aggression agreement and allows for the free use of certain patented technologies.
The list of components of distributions that fall under the definition of a Linux system has been expanded to . Among the newly added packages are exFAT drivers, KDE Frameworks, Hyperledger, Apache Hadoop, Robot OS (), Apache Avro, Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), Eclipse Paho and Mosquitto. Additionally, the components of the Android platform now include the Android 10 release in a state consistent with the open repository (Android Open Source Project).
As a result, the definition of a Linux system now covers , including the Linux kernel, Android platform, KVM, Git, nginx, CMake, PHP, Python, Ruby, Go, Lua, LLVM, OpenJDK, WebKit, KDE, GNOME, QEMU, Firefox, LibreOffice, Qt, systemd, X.Org, Wayland, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc. The number of OIN members who have signed the patent sharing agreement has exceeded 3300 companies, communities, and organizations.
Companies that sign the agreement gain access to the patents held by OIN in exchange for the commitment not to file lawsuits for the use of technologies applied in the Linux ecosystem. Among the main participants of OIN that contribute to the formation of the patent pool protecting Linux are companies such as Google, IBM, NEC, Toyota, Renault, SUSE, Philips, Red Hat, Alibaba, HP, AT&T, Juniper, Facebook, Cisco, Casio, Huawei, Fujitsu, Sony, and Microsoft. For example, Microsoft, which joined OIN, not to use against Linux and open-source software more than 60,000 of its patents.
The OIN patent pool includes more than 1300 patents. In particular, OIN a group of patents that feature some of the earliest mentions of dynamic web content creation technologies that predated such systems as Microsoft's ASP, Sun/Oracle's JSP, and PHP. Another significant contribution is In 2009, 22 Microsoft patents, which had previously been sold to the AST consortium, were identified as patents affecting open source products. All OIN participants have the opportunity to use these patents free of charge. The validity of the OIN agreement was confirmed by the decision of the U.S. Department of Justice. to take OIN's interests into account in the patent sale agreement with Novell.
Source: opennet.ru
