LitReview: Various Patent Promises

Who?

The folks at:

• Red Hat
• IBM
• Google

What?

• Red Hat - "Statement of Position and Our Promise on Software Patents"
• IBM - "Statement of Non-Assertion of Named Patents Against OSS"
• Google - "Open Patent Non Assertion Pledge"
• Red Hat Patent Promise: Encouraging - Patent Pledge Comparisons

Where?

• http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html
• http://www.ibm.com/ibm/licensing/patents/pledgedpatents.pdf
• https://www.google.com/patents/opnpledge/pledge/
• https://www.redhat.com/magazine/001nov04/features/patents/

When?

• Red Hat - 2014
• IBM - 2005
• Red Hat Comparisons - 2004

The Gist

Description of the promises made by Red Hat, IBM, and Google granting permission to infringe upon patents held by each company without fear of enforcement of said patents.  Also, a comparison by Red Hat highlighting differences on how individual types of pledges work and exactly what is promised by each pledge.

The Good

1. Nice to see big companies promoting the development of Open Source Software as opposed to inhibiting innovation.
2. IBM gives a long list of specific patents which is helpful for me to better understand what kinds of things are patented.
3. Pledges are specific to Open Source Software, which really promotes the development of Open Source projects over proprietary software.

The Bad

1. Each company states that they can terminate their promise.  Makes it sound like they will just use the promise however they see fit.
2. Promises are very broad and don't clearly explain how they specifically apply.
3. Red Hat admits this, but they are being quite hypocritical by fighting against software patents and then still owning tons of patents themselves.

Questions

1. Why are large companies able to acquire large libraries of patents that they could use against an ordinary person contributing to open source software who doesn't even know they are infringing a patent?  This seems unfair.
2. What do the patent promises for other companies look like?  Specifically, I would like to see a company like Apple's stand on this type of thing.
3. What are some companies that do not make patent pledges to help FOSS that would be helpful if they did.

Review

I liked this reading because the pledges are short and to the point, although I do really wish they made the pledges more clear.  I also would like more specific examples that show holes in the pledges or ways in which the pledges completely protect people.  The Red Hat comparison was helpful, but it did not list all that many examples.

7/10