IBM's move to reveal patent secrets to open-source software users

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jan 12, 2005 by Jen DeGregorio

Industry observers call IBM Corp.'s move to reveal 500 patent secrets to open-source software users a thinly veiled message to Microsoft Corp. to not mess with communal operating systems such as Linux.

In the past year or so, Microsoft has gotten quite nervous about open-source software, said Greg Stone, a patent attorney with Whiteford, Taylor and Preston in Baltimore.

Linux and other open-source software programs let users modify and redistribute them without worrying about intellectual property rights. Closed-source companies like Microsoft, on the other hand, protect their software codes via patents that cost users a high price, even as a platform for new, more complex programs.

Since open-source software is free, more companies - especially start-ups - choose it over commercial software.

Bill Schneider, chief architect for Vecna Technologies Inc. in College Park, depends on open-source software to build Web functions - such as those needed for Internet shopping and record keeping - for the federal government.

For small businesses like us, it's a force multiplier, Schneider said. We really look to open source to compete with bigger companies.

Schneider said that IBM's disclosure could help revolutionize technology, and might spur more conversation on the pros and cons of patents for software.

Microsoft's 2002 fiscal-year report noted that it saw Linux as a threat to its server business, and about a month ago the software giant began a campaign to indemnify clients against patent suits arising from using their products, Stone said.

IBM's patent pledge helps to re-level the playing field for the open-source developers by giving them an aegis against lawsuits similar to Microsoft's, Stone said.

IBM officials didn't want to talk about Microsoft.

The reason we're doing this is sort of a combination of reasons, Adam Jollans, IBM's manager of worldwide Linux marketing, said. We think it's good for our customers; we think it's going to encourage innovations.

IBM has been historically supportive of open-source systems, Jollans said, because of its capacity for collaboration and creativity in technology development.

The patents IBM pledged range from linking processes for operating systems and databases, to speech and handwriting recognition for computers, to language processing technologies.

Open-source proponents argue that closed-source software limits innovation because few people can afford to buy the rights to use - and possibly improve upon - those ideas.

Jollans said IBM hopes to change the way software companies approach business, turning intellectual property into a driver of innovation as well as revenue.

What we hope is that this is not just IBM that is offering patents. This is an industry thing that needs to happen, Jollans said.

Schneider said companies like IBM and Microsoft have so much brain power on staff that they are often left struggling for ways to sell their myriad ideas to the public.

Maybe by opening them up to the open-source community someone would find good use for them. Schneider said.