The Hindu Business Line : US co eyeing Indian firms to expand Linux ecosystem

Bangalore April 25 The US-based Open Invention Network is seeking out "big Indian firms" to licence out open source products. Recently, Oracle became a licensee of patents held by OIN and the firm is now looking at Indian firms to expand the Linux ecosystem, according to Mr Jerry Rosenthal, CEO, Open Invention Network.

It announced on Tuesday that two Indian licensees have been added. IT consultancy ClickforHelpIndia.com and offshore software solutions firm Quad One Technologies, have joined the growing list of companies that are leveraging OIN to ensure Linux-based, intellectual property protection for themselves and their end-user customers.

Patent protection

OIN was formed in 2005 and has taken upon itself the onus of `Defender of Linux patents'. Backed by Big Blue, Red Hat, Sony, Novell, Philips and NEC, it seeks to reassure customers who are worried about patent issues related to Linux.

The firm acquires patents and licences them out, royalty-free, to any company, institution or individual on the condition that the licensee agrees not to assert its patents against the `Linux System'.

Acquiring patents

OIN will also target developers and distributors of Linux who hold patents and are willing to sell.

Wireless, client and server operating system, email, document management and Web content management are some of the technologies in which OIN is interested in acquiring patents.

OIN will also organise industry gatherings on intellectual property in the open source community later this year, where it will discuss with government officials, business leaders and IP experts ways to protect Linux and ensure its availability. "In the future, we could look at helping the government adopt Linux," said Mr Rosenthal.

OIN has already obtained rights to over 100 patents and applications and hopes to double this number by next year.

India and open source

India needs to recognise the risk posed to the open source community, according to the OIN Chief Executive Officer, Mr Jerry Rosenthal. "Developers here may not worry about patent infringement, but those in other countries, especially the US, Japan and Europe are realising the importance of protecting and defending open source products," he said.