Microsoft Open Sources 60,000 Patents to End Linux Patent Wars

Microsoft announced that it’s joining the Open Invention Network (OIN), an open-source patent group launched in 2005 with the vision of serving as a “shared defensive patent pool with the mission to protect Linux”. In essence, this makes the company’s library over 60,000 patents open source and available to OIN members, via ZDNet.
OIN provides a license platform for Linux for around 2,400 companies — from individual developers to huge companies like Google and IBM — and all members get access to both OIN-owned patents and cross-licenses between other OIN licensees, royalty-free.
This isn’t the first time Microsoft has loosened its hold on patents. The company made a major change two years ago with its Azure IP Advantage Plan, to protect users from patent trolls. And earlier this year, it implemented a new policy saying companies that work with Microsoft on technology solutions could hold on to any patent rights that come out of that partnership.
Microsoft joining is a big step forward for both sides: OIN gets thousands of new patents from Microsoft, and Microsoft is really helping the open-source community that it has shunned in the past. There are exceptions to what Microsoft is making available — specifically, Windows desktop and desktop application code, which makes sense for many reasons — but otherwise, Microsoft is going open source.

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