In a follow-up to a previous article that stated that Microsoft planned to sue for 235 patent infringements in the Linux OS…Microsoft has taken an about face.
In an official letter to ZDNet’s UK site Microsoft said, “If we wanted to go down that road we could have done that three years ago. Rather than litigate, Microsoft has spent the last three years building an intellectual property bridge that works for all parties–including open source–and the customer response has been tremendously positive. Our focus is on continuing to build bridges.”
A couple of weeks ago the number of patents, at 235, did not specify what was being infringed on. Now a MS lawyer has explained more: 42 are for the Linux kernel (what’s under the hood), 65 user interface design elements, 45 for OpenOffice, and 83 others in open-source programs.
Although they are shedding some light on the subject it may not be too much to speculate that the threats of a lawsuit are empty.
So, for now, Linux is safe.
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