Today’s New York Times discussed the use of patent commons or other open-source-like as a method of spurring innovation in the area of dealing with climate change or other “green” technologies.
Microsoft has provided a limited patent pledge relating to patents which may affect certain web standards (SOAP), and Microsoft Office-related file formats.
ODSL announced its intention to provide a centralized repository for patents and licenses relating to materials donated to the open source community.
Nokia pledged not to assert its patents against the Linux kernel.
Sun Microsystems announced the release of the OpenSolaris operating system under the new CDDL open source license approved by the Open Source Initiative.
The company also made available more than 1,600 Sun patents associated with the Solaris OS. There is still some controversy over the exact scope and usefulness of the patent grant. See this article in eweek.com for example.
