IBM is once again trying to set a precedent by releasing 500 patents to the open source community. IBM has been touting open source and standardization for quite a while now. This move helps put their money — err, patents — where their mouth is. To help protect from the released patents, IBM actually stated that they will not assert their patents against people who use them within open source software.
IBM is hoping other companies will release additional patents and intellectual property to the open source community as well. The long-term hope is that it will lead to better innovation by allowing people to collaborate more on the open source patents.
The patents released fall into a number of different categories including the following:
- Interfacing
- Storage Management
- Multi-Processing
- Data Processing Programming
- Human Interfacing
- Database and Data Handling
- Image Processing and Video Technology
- Human Language Processing
- Compression, Encryption, and Access Control
- Software Development & Object Technology
- Internet, eCommerce, and Industry Specific
- Networking and Network Management
For the complete list of the patents, you can go to:
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/licensing/patents/pledgedpatents.pdf
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