miércoles, octubre 10, 2007

Microsoft aims patent guns at Red Hat

Microsoft
chief executive Steve Ballmer has warned users of
Red Hat
Linux
that they will have to pay Microsoft for its intellectual property.


"People who use Red Hat, at least with respect to our intellectual property,
in a sense have an obligation to compensate us," Ballmer said last week at a
company event in London discussing online services in the UK.

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1 comentario:

Alberto Seseña dijo...

Short patent timeline:

16 May, 1991: "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today." - Bill Gates, Challenges and Strategy Memo

Aug, 2004: OSDL releases a study saying Linux may infringe 283 patents; Ballmer leaves away the word "may"

May, 2007: Brad Smith claims Linux potentially infringes 235 patents

Oct, 2007: Ballmer claims

Linux potentially infringes 153 patents

Conclusion: Number of Microsoft patents filed at USPTO grows, but number of MS patents Linux potentially infringes on is declining.

source: http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/93899/index.html