Probably many of you know about the acquisition of 882 of Novell's
patents by a Microsoft organized consortium [1].
What you may not know is that, as Novell was part of OIN (Open Invention
Network), those that join OIN *before* the closing date for the
acquisition (about january 23) will be protected from any harassment
regarding these patents.
This [2] Groklaw's article explains it in more detail.
It works because the patents are granted perpetually to OIN members that
have jointed before the closing date, even in the case of a sell (like
occurred in this case).
You don't need to have patents or be a company to join (for free) OIN.
Any project (like Arch Linux), or even an individual can do it.
I understand that *if* MS will use them, it'll be with the big guys (or
at least some company). Probably they will prefer to use the patents
just for FUD.
But OTOH we have nothing to loose (not even patents :-), and it's free.
[1]
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20101124103213556
[2] http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20101206205654916
Armando
