Open Invention Network (OIN) is an organization that owns patents related to software associated with GNU/Linux. The organization's goal is to protect Linux and its associated software from patent lawsuits. Community members contribute their patents to a shared pool, thereby allowing other participants to use them under a royalty-free license.
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What OIN does
Open Invention Network was founded in 2005 by IBM, NEC, Philips, Red Hat, Sony, and SUSE. One of the reasons for the establishment of OIN is considered to be Microsoft's aggressive approach towards Linux. Representatives of the corporation stated that OS developers had infringed over three hundred patents.
Since then, Microsoft has changed its stance regarding open-source software. Last year, the company even Open Invention Network (more details on this later). However, patent disputes in the IT industry have not disappeared — companies the licensing rules for their products and file lawsuits.
An example can be between Oracle and Google. Oracle accused Google of unlawful use of Java and infringement of seven patents in the development of Android. The dispute has been ongoing for almost ten years with mixed outcomes for both companies. The last court ruling in 2018 . Now the second company plans to and resolve the matter in the U.S. Supreme Court.
To avoid similar situations in the future, more organizations (including Google) are joining OIN and sharing their licenses. By the end of June, the number of licensees . In the list, , including companies such as WIRED, Ford, General Motors, SpaceX, GitHub, GitLab, and thousands of others.
What this means for the industry
More areas of activity. At the very beginning, OIN focused solely on Linux. As the organization developed, its activities expanded into other areas of open-source software. Today, the company's portfolio includes patents from fields such as mobile payments, blockchain technologies, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and automotive developments. With the growth of the community, this spectrum will continue to expand.
More open projects. OIN's portfolio over two million patents and applications. With the arrival of new companies, this number will rise. Jim Zemlin, the executive director , once , much of Linux's success is attributed to OIN. In the future, OIN will assist in the creation of other landmark projects.
The activities of the Open Invention Network and the patent protection it provides will contribute to the emergence of new open-source software products and accelerate their development,” comments Sergey Belkin, head of the project development department. . For example, organizations already 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 by 50%.
Just last year, Microsoft transferred more than 60,000 of its patents to OIN. According to the CEO of Open Invention Network, they cover almost all of the company’s developments—both old and new. Examples include technologies related to Android, the Linux kernel, and OpenStack, as well as LF Energy and HyperLedger.
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Also in 2018, OIN welcomed two Chinese giants, Alibaba and Ant Financial. Around the same time, OIN Tencent—a major investment company specializing in internet services, artificial intelligence systems, and electronic services. The exact number of patents transferred by the companies is unknown. However, , it was quite a lot, considering that since 2012, China has led in the number of patent applications.
Additionally, OIN was recently joined by Overall, all participants of the Open Invention Network and project leaders hope that in the future, even more companies will join them.
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Source: habr.com
