About the Author
My name is Kevin A. Thompson, I am an intellectual property attorney in Chicago, Illinois with the firm Davis McGrath LLC. I practice in the areas of domestic and international trademark, copyright, and internet issues. Internet law is my real love, especially how trademarks and copyrights intersect there. The focus of this blog is the digital world, its impact and legal framework. I write about recent issues, cases, and controversies. I also give my general thoughts about the Internet and its impact upon us and our society.
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Microsoft claims Open Source software violates its patents
Although I’m not a patent attorney, I was drawn to news of Microsoft’s statement in a Fortune article that free and Open Source software violated 235 of its patents. Mary Jo Foley covered the news in detail here. In particular, the claim was made by Microsoft’s Horacio Gutierrez that the Linux kernel violates 42 Microsoft patents, Linux graphical user interfaces violate 65, Open Office violates 45, some e-mail programs violate 15 more, and others violate another 68 patents. As a happy user of OpenOffice, I am concerned as well.
Microsoft has addressed its patents in other open source software by granting licenses, it is unclear currently whether this is a declaration of war by Microsoft to preempt the upcoming version 3 of the GPL, or possibly a bargaining chip to increase its leverage. Only time will tell.
I’d be curious to get a reaction to this news from a Patent attorney, either privately by email or in the comments.
UPDATED TO ADD: You can read Dennis Crouch at Patently O’s take on the statement here, be sure to check out the comments, too.
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