Let’s Explore
by T. Colin Dodd
Microsoft has long said that they would like to do a patent-licensing deal with Red Hat, , but their overtures have been rebuffed, presumably because Red Hat views it to be best for their business not to do so. But it is disingenuous for Red Hat to complain that Microsoft does not give its competitors free use of its patents when Red Hat does the same. Will this issue be explored in the next installment of Truth Happens? Not bloody likely.
In fact, if you tune in on Friday, TruthHappens.com will post an interview with our formal General Counsel Mark Webbink on the subject of patents and the construction of the Red Hat Patent Promise.
Apparently, there is a more lot to learn.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Excellent! I now take back the last two sentences and apologize for the snark. To be honest I am pleasantly surprised that you will be addressing the patent promise (hopefully) on these particulars.
The point I am most interested in is the unfairness of Red Hat’s expecting a free grant of patent licenses from Microsoft without giving such a free grant in return. Some of Red Hat’s partners also have patents covering software included in the Enterprise version - does Red Hat likewise expect these partners to give it free licenses?
I found Mark Webbink’s general post on patents very informative - all except his speculation on Microsoft’s motivations behind their belated use of software patents (belated compared to Red Hat’s partner IBM, certainly). And I believe, as I’m sure you do, that more discussion of the policies behind software patents and their (often poor) implementations in practice can only lead to better systems.