Microsoft Joins Open Invention Network With Its 60,000+ Patents

Microsoft has joined the Open Invention Network (OIN) to as they put it "protect Linux and open-source."

Open Invention Network is the community of members ranging from Google to IBM and Red Hat now to Microsoft whereby when joining OIN you agree not to assert patents against Linux and related open-source software while in turn members can utilize OIN patents/licenses royalty-free.

Microsoft is now among the nearly three-thousand licensee members with its collection of more than 60,000 patents.

Microsoft announced on their blog they are doing it to "help protect Linux and open-source...Now, as we join OIN, we believe Microsoft will be able to do more than ever to help protect Linux and other important open source workloads from patent assertions. We bring a valuable and deep portfolio of over 60,000 issued patents to OIN for the benefit of Linux and other open source technologies. We also hope that our decision to join will attract many other companies to OIN, making the license network even stronger for the benefit of the open source community."