From Microsoft Makes Open Specification Promise:
Microsoft made an irrevocable promise yesterday to not assert any of its patents against the implementation of some web based standards. … So, MS is promising, in advance, not to assert patents over any standard that it helps to develop. This flies in the face of the patent hawk mantra that patents are “necessary to incentivize development.” Truth be told, MS and others develop standards because they benefit from the existence of the standard itself, not some patent that they may some day receive.
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Some years ago Red Hat (the popular Linux vendor) applied for some patents. Of course the “open source community” flamed them, but this response was myopic. Red Hat wanted to make sure that whatever they were doing would no be “highjacked” by other companies who would later obtain a patent and sue them. The entire system is a mess and it’s a real shame that defensive patenting is needed to survive.
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