Comments on: My Edupatents Talk at PESC http://mfeldstein.com/my-edupatents-talk-at-pesc/ What Michael Feldstein Is Learning About Online Learning...Online Sun, 20 Jul 2008 06:59:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: Michael Feldstein http://mfeldstein.com/my-edupatents-talk-at-pesc/#comment-4655 Tue, 15 May 2007 15:36:58 +0000 http://mfeldstein.com/my-edupatents-talk-at-pesc/#comment-4655 It doesn't. Microsoft has refused to identify the patents upon which linux supposedly infringes. Given this fact, and the fact that they have not actually sued anybody yet, there's good reason to speculate that their patents are not effectively enforceable for them. Who are they going to sue? Their customers? The unfortunate reality is that there will be cases in which Open Source projects will need to pay patent royalty fees. However, it is not at all clear that this is one of those cases. It doesn’t. Microsoft has refused to identify the patents upon which linux supposedly infringes. Given this fact, and the fact that they have not actually sued anybody yet, there’s good reason to speculate that their patents are not effectively enforceable for them. Who are they going to sue? Their customers?

The unfortunate reality is that there will be cases in which Open Source projects will need to pay patent royalty fees. However, it is not at all clear that this is one of those cases.

]]> by: Patrick Masson http://mfeldstein.com/my-edupatents-talk-at-pesc/#comment-4653 Tue, 15 May 2007 14:57:28 +0000 http://mfeldstein.com/my-edupatents-talk-at-pesc/#comment-4653 According to IMS and Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness "All segments of the U.S. higher education IT market are expressing significant interest in open source software products. Open source is gaining mindshare from four directions: spillover from commercial open source initiatives (such as Linux, Apache, OpenOffice), grant-funded open source initiatives in higher education specific application areas (course management, portal, financial systems, student portfolios), market-driven open source initiatives in higher education specific application areas (course management), and open source compatible higher education specific applications (course management, portal). So while LMS adoption is one of the four primary areas of interest on campuses, Linux adoption, at 51% according to the report, is leading open source adoption. This week Microsoft claimed Linux and other open source software projects violate 235 of its patents, but has declined to elaborate further in case open source developers challenge their legitimacy. USAToday reports, "Microsoft has struck a number of patent-licensing deals with companies that use open source code, most notably Novell last November. In one aspect of the deal, Microsoft agreed to sell Novell's flavor of Linux, called Suse. It also agreed not to sue the customers who bought it, even though it claims the open-source software infringes on its patents." (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2007-05-15-microsoft-patents_N.htm) How does Microsoft's patent-licensing deals and agreements not to sue OSS users, even before patents claims are validated, jibe with your advocation for "non-assertion agreements"? According to IMS and Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness “All segments of the U.S. higher education IT market are expressing significant interest in open source software products. Open source is gaining mindshare from four directions: spillover from commercial open source initiatives (such as Linux, Apache, OpenOffice), grant-funded open source initiatives in higher education specific application areas (course management, portal, financial systems, student portfolios), market-driven open source initiatives in higher education specific application areas (course management), and open source compatible higher education specific applications (course management, portal). So while LMS adoption is one of the four primary areas of interest on campuses, Linux adoption, at 51% according to the report, is leading open source adoption.

This week Microsoft claimed Linux and other open source software projects violate 235 of its patents, but has declined to elaborate further in case open source developers challenge their legitimacy.

USAToday reports, “Microsoft has struck a number of patent-licensing deals with companies that use open source code, most notably Novell last November. In one aspect of the deal, Microsoft agreed to sell Novell’s flavor of Linux, called Suse. It also agreed not to sue the customers who bought it, even though it claims the open-source software infringes on its patents.” (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/industry/2007-05-15-microsoft-patents_N.htm)

How does Microsoft’s patent-licensing deals and agreements not to sue OSS users, even before patents claims are validated, jibe with your advocation for “non-assertion agreements”?

]]> by: OLDaily[中文版] » Blog Archive » 2007年5月7日 http://mfeldstein.com/my-edupatents-talk-at-pesc/#comment-4304 Tue, 08 May 2007 12:29:00 +0000 http://mfeldstein.com/my-edupatents-talk-at-pesc/#comment-4304 [...] 这是一个关于教育专利权的演讲，提供幻灯片及演讲之后的评论。我还没有时间去听，这是异常繁忙的一天。Michael Feldstein, e-Literate May 7, 2007 [原文链接] [Tags: Patents, Copyrights, Patents] [参与评论] [...] […] 这是一个关于教育专利权的演讲，提供幻灯片及演讲之后的评论。我还没有时间去听，这是异常繁忙的一天。Michael Feldstein, e-Literate May 7, 2007 [原文链接] [Tags: Patents, Copyrights, Patents] [参与评论] […]

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