Red Hat’s legal team accuses Microsoft of patent ‘FUD’
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RALEIGH, N.C. – One day after the Triangle-based Open Invention Network disclosed acquisition of 22 Linux-related patents once held by Microsoft, Red Hat’s legal team accused Microsoft of planning a “classic FUD effort.”
Fear, uncertainty and doubt.
According to the Hatters’ legal blog, the ONI and another organization, Allied Security Trust, acquired the patents before any “patent trolls” could buy them. ONI members include Red Hat and IBM.
“The Open Invention Network learned recently that Microsoft was planning to auction off some of its software patents, which we understand it marketed to trolls and some other non-practicing entities,” the red Hat legal team wrote.
“It also used marketing materials that highlighted offensive uses of the patents against open source software, including a number of the most popular open source packages.
“This looked to us like a classic FUD effort. To unleash FUD, you assemble a lot of patents of uncertain value, annotate them with a roadmap for the companies and products to be targeted with the patents, put the lot in the hands of trolls schooled in patent aggression, and then stand back and wait for the FUD to spread with its chilling effect.”
Microsoft, Red Hat and the Linux world have feuded for years about whether portions of Linux infringed on Microsoft patents. Other groups have filed suits related to Linux, and Red Hat hasn’t escaped legal challenge.
Microsoft has extended an olive branch to the open source community with some code contributions, something which Red Hat had praised.
However, this new dispute has raised concerns at Red Hat.
“But its true colors seem in question,” the Hatters said about Microsoft. “It sued Tom-Tom using questionable patents that targeted Linux and has sought to use the alleged strength of its public patents to twist the arms of its clients and partners under the cloak of a confidentiality agreement-imposed secrecy blanket.
“This latest attempt to encourage patent aggression by trolls against FOSS [free and open source software] further shows that Microsoft is not yet committed to the path of peace with the open source software community and appears intent on inappropriately preserving and extending its dominant market positions in the operating system and personal productivity suites.”
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