Bremen, 03.05.2011 Univention, manufacturer of the Linux infrastructure solution Univention Corporate Server (UCS) and other solutions has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN). The OIN was founded by IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony in 2005 and now counts industry giants like Google and Oracle among its associate members. The member companies have funded the purchase ofnumerous Linux associated software patents, and cross licensed their own Linux associated software patents to the OIN. These are available to all members of the organisation without the need to pay licence fees. Other parties are only granted access to these technologies once they have guaranteed that they will not enforce their own patent rights against Linux. As many of the patents held by the OIN are of fundamental importance to the IT industry, this patent collection reduces the possibility of implementing legal proceedings against Linux.
Advantages for the legally secure further development of Univention products
Univention’s joining the OIN provides the customers of the Bremen-based Open Source provider with two main advantages: for one thing, the OIN provides protection against claims that Univention has inadvertently infringed patents. This increases the legal security of the Univention users. For another thing, the Bremen-based software manufacturer can utilise a large number of Linuxrelevant software patents from other OIN member companies without paying licence fees. This will both simplify and accelerate the development of existing and future Univention products.
Univention itself does not have any software patents of its own. On its own accord and not as a requirement of its OIN membership, Univention also undertakes not to register any software patents in the future. “In a world where there is intense debate about the efficacy of software patents and their effect on innovators, we join organisations such as OIN to help provide protection in order to concentrate on the development of innovative and open products”, explained Peter Ganten, Managing Director of Univention.
“Univention-s UCS is an important European Linux distribution focused on the needs of enterprise IT infrastructures. Given this, we are pleased to have Univention join OIN as a licensee.” said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. “By doing so, Univention affirms that it values the openness and collaborative culture of the open source community. We applaud their decision.”
Furthermore, Univention feels obliged to provide the community with the program code for its improvements and further developments to Linux, particularly to Debian, as Open Source software. The Bremen-based software manufacturer sees the continually growing distribution of Linux and Open Source software, particularly in the professional environment, as proof of how Open Source functions as a model for the development of software and an accordingly structured IT business.
Further information
Open Invention Network (OIN): http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/index.php
More information on the OIN licence, the use of software patents without paying licence fees and on the obligation of all members to provide their Linux-relevant patents as well can be found at: http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/pat_license_agreement.php
Linux and Open Source organisations supported by Univention: http://www.univention.de/univention/mitglied-sponsor/
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