Huawei joins initiative to protect Linux from patent claims

Huawei entered among the licensees and participants of the organization Open Invention Network (OIN), dedicated to protecting the Linux ecosystem from patent claims. OIN members agree not to assert patent claims and will freely permit the use of patented technologies in projects related to the Linux ecosystem. Huawei has a significant number of patents in the fields of communications, cloud technologies, smart devices and electronics.

OIN members include more than 3200 companies, communities and organizations that have signed a patent sharing license agreement. Among the main participants of OIN, ensuring the formation of a 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, Fujitsu, Sony and Microsoft. Companies that sign the agreement gain access to patents held by OIN in exchange for an obligation not to pursue legal claims for the use of technologies used in the Linux ecosystem. Including as part of joining OIN, Microsoft Transmitted OIN members the right to use more than 60 thousand of their patents, pledging not to use them against Linux and open source software.

The agreement between OIN members applies only to components of distributions that fall under the definition of a Linux system (“Linux System”). Currently list includes 2873 packages, including Linux kernel, Android platform, KVM, Git, nginx, CMake, PHP, Python, Ruby, Go, Lua, OpenJDK, WebKit, KDE, GNOME, QEMU, Firefox, LibreOffice, Qt, systemd, X .org, Wayland, etc. In addition to non-aggression obligations, for additional protection, the OIN has formed a patent pool, which includes patents purchased or donated by participants related to Linux.

The OIN patent pool includes over 1300 patents. Including in the hands of OIN is a group of patents that featured some of the earliest references to dynamic web content technologies that presaged such systems as Microsoft's ASP, Sun/Oracle's JSP, and PHP. Another significant contribution is the acquisition in 2009, 22 Microsoft patents that had previously been sold to the AST consortium as patents covering "open source" products. All OIN members have the opportunity to use these patents free of charge. The effectiveness of the OIN agreement was confirmed by the decision of the US Department of Justice, demanding consider the interests of the OIN in the terms of the deal to sell the Novell patents.

Source: opennet.ru