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Posted to legal-discuss@apache.org by Lawrence Rosen <lr...@rosenlaw.com> on 2005/09/30 00:10:09 UTC
Sun's Covenenant in OASIS
To various lists:
In a welcome move toward open software standards in OASIS, Sun Microsystems
has covenanted not to enforce its patents against implementations of the
Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) specification.
[See http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/ipr.php.]
This is a good thing because it allows the development of free and open
source implementations of office applications without fear of patent
infringement claims by Sun.
Most important, because this is from Sun, a company that plays an important
leadership role in many standards organizations, this is an example for
other OASIS member companies to follow. It proves once and for all that
patent holders in OASIS working groups can find reasonable ways to allow
their patents to be implemented for software standards without demanding
royalties or imposing burdens of license execution and restrictions on
sublicensing.
I hope that other patent holders will do the same for the OASIS standards to
which they contribute.
If they follow this lead, we will no longer have the spectres of patent
infringement lawsuits and RAND-type licensing for software applications that
implement OASIS standards. Both open source and proprietary software can
thrive in that environment.
/Larry Rosen
Lawrence Rosen
Rosenlaw & Einschlag, technology law offices (www.rosenlaw.com)
3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482
707-485-1242 * fax: 707-485-1243
Author of "Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and
Intellectual Property Law" (Prentice Hall 2004)
[Available also at www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm]
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Re: Sun's Covenenant in OASIS
Posted by "Geir Magnusson Jr." <ge...@apache.org>.
Given our ongoing issues with Sun related to IP around Java
implementations, what is the definition of "implementation" in this
case?
(I tried to read the spec to figure out the license, but I don't do
OO so...)
geir
On Sep 29, 2005, at 6:10 PM, Lawrence Rosen wrote:
> To various lists:
>
> In a welcome move toward open software standards in OASIS, Sun
> Microsystems
> has covenanted not to enforce its patents against implementations
> of the
> Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument)
> specification.
> [See http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/ipr.php.]
>
> This is a good thing because it allows the development of free and
> open
> source implementations of office applications without fear of patent
> infringement claims by Sun.
>
> Most important, because this is from Sun, a company that plays an
> important
> leadership role in many standards organizations, this is an example
> for
> other OASIS member companies to follow. It proves once and for all
> that
> patent holders in OASIS working groups can find reasonable ways to
> allow
> their patents to be implemented for software standards without
> demanding
> royalties or imposing burdens of license execution and restrictions on
> sublicensing.
>
> I hope that other patent holders will do the same for the OASIS
> standards to
> which they contribute.
>
> If they follow this lead, we will no longer have the spectres of
> patent
> infringement lawsuits and RAND-type licensing for software
> applications that
> implement OASIS standards. Both open source and proprietary
> software can
> thrive in that environment.
>
> /Larry Rosen
>
> Lawrence Rosen
> Rosenlaw & Einschlag, technology law offices (www.rosenlaw.com)
> 3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482
> 707-485-1242 * fax: 707-485-1243
> Author of "Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and
> Intellectual Property Law" (Prentice Hall 2004)
> [Available also at www.rosenlaw.com/oslbook.htm]
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> DISCLAIMER: Discussions on this list are informational and educational
> only, are not privileged and do not constitute legal advice.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: legal-discuss-unsubscribe@apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: legal-discuss-help@apache.org
>
>
--
Geir Magnusson Jr +1-203-665-6437
geirm@apache.org
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