AST and Red Hat [LWN.net]

AST and Red Hat

Posted Oct 18, 2009 9:30 UTC (Sun) by AlexHudson (guest, #41828)
In reply to: AST and Red Hat by rahulsundaram
Parent article: Sam Ramji: On the CodePlex Foundation and more

It has been said that "OIN has a patent treaty with AST I" (http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/168-brian-proffi...) so it may be that Red Hat, while not being members themselves, benefit from the AST I licensing arrangements.

I find it difficult to believe that Microsoft were intending be malicious by selling their patents to a defensive patent trust (which is what AST is). It sounds more like - to me - they tried selling the patents individually first and ended up having to auction them as a lot later. Which basically infers that there isn't a lot of value in these patents.

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AST and Red Hat

Posted Oct 18, 2009 20:38 UTC (Sun) by BrucePerens (subscriber, #2510) [Link]

Except that Microsoft didn't have to sell their patents. Especially patents that effect Linux and Open Source software. They aren't really short of money, although they've tightened their belt a bit they still have around 20 Billion of cash and short-term investments, and longer-term assets worth more. So, I still don't believe much of what we are being told about this.