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Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Open Source Patent Commons Launched.

From the website of the

Open Source Development Labs (OSDL):

SAN FRANCISCO, LINUXWORLD - August 9, 2005 - The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL), a global consortium dedicated to accelerating the adoption of Linux®, today announced a new initiative called the OSDL patent commons project designed to provide a central location where software patents and patent pledges will be housed for the benefit of the open source development community and industry.

''The OSDL patent commons project is designed to increase the utility and value of the growing number of patent pledges and promises in the past year by providing a central repository where intellectual property can be held for the benefit of all of us," said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL. "Our goal is to make it easier for developers and industry to take advantage of the good works of vendors, individuals and organizations who may wish to pledge patents and intellectual property in support of the community. [...]

For details, see also Mr. Stuart Cohen in

BusinessWeek online. BTW, the idea

isn't entirely new. And, outright,

no, the Community seems

not to be backing such projects all the way. See also

Mr. Florian Müller's statement [in German only; sorry].

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