Open Source Software Violate Microsoft Patents

Open source software companies are under General Public License, which allows software developers to modify software source code to make it custom. General Public License also forbids to sell Linux or any other open source software.

On the other side Microsoft has licensing deals with the mentioned companies. For example, Novell (that distributes the Suse version of Linux) and Microsoft are existing in a deal, according to which both companies aim not to sue each others customers for patent violation. But Novell's representative doesn't agree that they violate any of Microsoft's patent, the agreement is to provide with "compatibility between the companies' products".

Another example is the deal between Microsoft and Fuji Xerox (joint venture between Fujifilm Holdings and Xerox) and Samsung. The licensing agreements are to license Microsoft technologies that are used by Linux and other open source software. These agreements didn't mean to connect commercial and open source software developers anyhow.

But General Public License is scheduled to be changed this summer, the changes are supposed to forbid this kind of licensing agreements between commercial and open source companies to prevent patent violation conflicts.

So Microsoft says that Linux violates 235 of its patents and these violations must be compensated, because Microsoft's technology is copyrighted intellectual property.

By Ruzan Harutyunyan for HULIQ