This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz
by James Robertson.
Original Post: IBM's 500 Patent Giveaway
Feed Title: Richard Demers Blog
Feed URL: http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/rssBlog/rademers-rss.xml
Feed Description: Richard Demers on Smalltalk
IBM announced that they are making available 500 of their 25,000 U.S. patents for free, open-source use. For the text of the announcement, along with the titles of the patents, look here.
So what is IBM up to? Are the announced patents worth anything to anyone? It's hard to tell from the titles since they were probably written by lawyers. Here is a list of the categories of these patents:
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
Miscellaneous
A broad list, but why the giveaway? Maybe they really have bought into the open-source idea, and realized that making patent rights broadly available is to their competitive advantage.
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