Monday, 14 May 2007

Microsoft Says Open Source Violates 235 Patents

Microsoft claims that free and open-source software violates more than 230 of its patents. Microsoft top lawyer Brad Smith alleges that the Linux kernel violates 42 Microsoft patents. Last year, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had openly stated that he thinks the Linux operating system...

Microsoft claims that free and open-source software violates more than 230 of its patents. Microsoft top lawyer Brad Smith alleges that the Linux kernel violates 42 Microsoft patents.

Last year, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer had openly stated that he thinks the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property. Microsoft had in fact embraced Novell’s open-source software platform, forming a technological truce between two long-time antagonists who want to make it easier for the still-dominant Windows operating system and the increasingly popular Linux system to work together.

"This builds a very important intellectual-property bridge between the open source and proprietary sides of software," Smith, said shortly before the companies formally announced their alliance in San Francisco.

The alliance was primarily aimed at the growing number of major companies and government agencies that rely on elements of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft's Windows and Linux to run their computers.

In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell earlier this month because Linux "uses our intellectual property" and Microsoft wanted to "get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation."

"It all comes down to recognising there is a mixed environment out there," Ballmer had said during a press conference during the time.

Many open-source advocates criticised the deal, nevertheless. They argued that it was tantamount to an admission of patent violations by a key Linux supporter that bolstered Microsoft's case if it decided its patent claims.

Microsoft officials, including Ballmer at that point, were tight-lipped on whether the Linux kernel, which is governed by the General Public License and takes contributions from programmers all around the world, violated Microsoft's patents.

"Novell pays us some money for the right to tell customers that anybody who uses SUSE Linux is appropriately covered," Ballmer said. “This is important to us, because [otherwise] we believe every Linux customer basically has an undisclosed balance-sheet liability."