Linked by Thom Holwerda on Fri 12th Oct 2007 14:16 UTC, submitted by walterbyrd
Groklaw reports that a company called IP Innovation, LLC, has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Novell and Red Hat. Groklaw goes into black helicopter mode, trying to find a tie between this IP Innovation thing and Microsoft - and it finds it too. A few ex-Microsoft employees now work at IP Innovation. Do with it as you please.
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Member since:2005-07-13
Further, I hope Novell has gained a greater appreciation for how monumentally stupid they are. Even if Microsoft is the ringleader behind these continued IP assaults, the legal actions are highly unlikely to ever come directly from Microsoft. The primary threat is clearly through patent trolls like SCO and IP Innovation. The Novell deal has not made any Linux vendor or user any safer. If anything, they are less safe because of it.
*sigh*
You had me up until this paragraph. This is getting ridiculous. Patent trolling existed long before Novell even entered the linux game.
If Novell has any fault in this matter, it is only due to generating a revenue stream from linux products, a "fault" shared by Red Hat even more so.
Just as Microsoft is ignoring the linux community at large in their ceaseless FUDing, this company is targeting only Red Hat and Novell. Why? Money. That's all this is. Even if MS is behind this, it's still about the enterprise companies.
Is there a threat to the linux community at large? Only in as much as the developers will have to find ways to code around the infringement *if* the patent holds and RH/Novell are found to be infringing. Even then it will be an issue localized to the US market, and not likely to harm Joe Average.
This is nothing new. The "community" has always said that they'll address patent concerns responsibly and work around them when necessary. And you can bet that a good portion of that development will come from Novell, as well as RH. Both organizations have committed to stand behind linux and address patent issues as they occur.
So now the buck has finally dropped. It was bound to happen, linux has reached a point where the commercial companies around it become tantalizing targets just as their proprietary counterparts have been for some time now. This is the first, no doubt there will be others. (The SCO case was about copyrights, not patents, but it too was similarly about money, which is why they started by going after IBM, expecting a quick settlement.) The "community" better get used to it and quit running around like a bunch of Chicken Littles every time it happens, it's simply the way things work in the US. Patents are obstacles, they don't necessarily have to be barriers.
This has SFA to do with Novell and the "deal".
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Member since:
2005-07-08
The patent was filed Mar 25, 1987 and issued Dec 10, 1991, so it expires Dec 10, 2008. I wonder if the judgment has to be issued before the time runs out or if the patent status is grandfathered by the filing date.
The patent could be liberally interpreted as covering any window manager that implements multiple workspaces. However, there's some more specific language that refers to particular kinds of data structures and such, so it's very possible that Xorg and the DEs/WMs aren't really infringing.
The major question is whether we can code around this patent if the legal threat is credible. I guess we'll have to wait for guidance from the FOSS legal arsenal (SFLC, EFF, Linux Foundation, etc.)
Here we go again! Just as soon as SCO goes away, a new challenger emerges. I suspect that when we defeat "IP Innovation", there will be new threats lined up. There certainly seems to be a coordinated effort to embroil Linux in constant IP controversy, and frankly, it doesn't really matter to what extent Microsoft is involved. What's important is that we get used to it as a community and learn to gracefully handle these allegations from the legal, technical, marketing, and public relations perspectives.
Further, I hope Novell has gained a greater appreciation for how monumentally stupid they are. Even if Microsoft is the ringleader behind these continued IP assaults, the legal actions are highly unlikely to ever come directly from Microsoft. The primary threat is clearly through patent trolls like SCO and IP Innovation. The Novell deal has not made any Linux vendor or user any safer. If anything, they are less safe because of it.