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August 11, 2008

The OIN (Open Invention Network), a var-related and tech vendor-backed organization that acquires various patents in an effort to protect the Linux and open source community from intellectual property litigation will soon launch a new website to assist application programmers, developers and inventors in efficiently filing defensive technical publications.

The OIN refers to "defensive technical publications" as specific and better written documents that make minute details of an invention public, preventing others from later making patent claims on it.

OIN's new initiative will serve as a counterpart to its already existing strategy, under which it provides its patents royalty-free to companies and organizations in exchange for a commitment that they won't assert their patents against the Linux system.

OIN's current backers include Red Hat, IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips and Sony.

Among some of the licensees are Google, Oracle and Alfresco.

Keith Bergelt, CEO of the Open Invention Network says "the more we can mobilize this community, the fewer patents that will actually be granted."

He added "whatever happens in the patent reform world in the next U.S. administration is great. However, we still have to act now to stop the granting of patents that threaten the Linux and open-source community in general."

Bergelt declined to provide the specific amount of capital his organization's fund has on hand but he did indicate that it is in the hundreds of millions of dollars and that the OIN will "continue to buy at a very brisk pace."

The OIN fund tends to acquire patents tied to areas like server virtualization software and Linux networking.

Bergelt added that "those are kind of the key areas to Linux as it moves forward."

Source: The Open Invention Network.

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