Open Invention Network expands coverage

A "limitation election" wouldn't be Oracle pulling out of OIN entirely, but rather, simply exempting patents in this area from the pool. As one previous example which I happen to remember, Sony has done this with certain of its CD and media patents (so likely BluRay, etc). But they've made patents in other areas available to the OIN pool, and remain one of the bigger OIN and Linux Foundation sponsors (and I believe and OIN founder). I /think/ IBM has done similar, but don't recall for sure, and the same general effect can be had by arbitrarily limiting the defined area of coverage (what the define to be "Linux"), and it may be that as a founder, IBM has simply shaped the defined coverage such that they are comfortable with not taking this sort of "limitation election".

In fact, this announcement actually expands the area of coverage, and the "limitation election" is the mechanism by which OIN members can opt-out of expansions such as this in a limited way, without forcing the otherwise rather drastic choice between omitting the expansion entirely as members could not otherwise agree to it, or forcing existing members to pull out if they can't abide the new expansion.

So the good news is, the area covered by the OIN definition of "Linux" has expanded in general. The bad news is that certain existing members weren't willing to set aside their differences in the covered area in ordered to do so, so the expansion in coverage isn't in practice nearly as broad as it might at first seem.

But it would seem that the OIN powers that be are willing to settle for (to borrow an analogy) half full, in ordered to be able to agree on a vessel to hold any water at all. Whether that's an improvement because anything is better than nothing, or terrible, because it settles for a little instead of encouraging the "World War III, patent war", that many believe is necessary in ordered to eliminate the problem for good, remains up for debate.

But the proponents of "going nuclear" should be quite happy these days, because given the way things are going in the cellphone/tablet world, "patent nuclear war" might not be that far off. And this "limitation election" is notice that Oracle at least, has every intent of continued escalation, so while the OIN headlines look good, ONWARD! we go, toward patent-nuclear!

Time will tell...

Duncan