By becoming an OIN licensee the Maidenhead, UK-based open source enterprise content management start-up has effectively acquired protection related to 100 patents and patent applications in return for a promise not to use any patents it might have against Linux and other associated projects.
In signing on with OIN, Alfresco is seeking patent protection, not only for ourselves, but for the broader open source community, explained John Powell, Alfresco’s chief executive officer. The company has promised to share existing and future patents with OIN licensees.
The OIN was formed in November 2005 by IBM, Red Hat, Novell, Sony and Philips to stockpile donated patents and license them on a royalty-free basis in return for promises not to assert patent claims against Linux. The organization announced itself ready to respond to patent infringement claims late last year in response to Microsoft’s declaration that Linux and open source software infringes 235 of its patents.
NEC joined as an investor, member and licensee in September 2006 while licensees include Canonical – the sponsor of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, open source collababoration firm Open-Xchange, and database and applications giant Oracle.
