Microsoft keeps on surprising with its open source efforts. Their latest move in favor of Linux and Open Source has left no one indifferent. The company has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN) and, as a consequence, now all the members of this consortium will be able to use freely and without restrictions more than 60,000 patents related to Linux that are owned by Microsoft.
So far, the Redmond company charged large sums of money for using these patents for example to Android or Samsung, which came to pay about 1,000 million dollars for using patents related to the manufacture of smartphones.
t's worth recalling that the patents and licenses that have to do with Windows code remain totally private and they are exclusive property of Microsoft.
The OIN was created in 2005 with the purpose of sharing patents between companies and using them in a defensive way to protect Linux, mainly against the attacks of the so-called *patent trolls". Today, it has more than 2,000 members, including IBM, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, Sony, Google, Facebook, Twitter and VirtualCable, developer and supporter of the VDI and vApp connection brokerUDS Enterprise.
Source: Xataka
You must authenticate to review this post