What do Linux vendors want with those former Microsoft graphics patents?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a group of open-source backers is poised to purchase 22 graphics patents formerly the property of Microsoft.
The patents in question seem to include some or all of the 3D-graphics-related ones that Microsoft purchased from SGI in 2002. Microsoft sold these patents earlier this year to a third-party patent broker, Allied Security Trust (AST). The Journal reported on September 8 that AST is selling the patents to the Open Invention Network (OIN), a group of companies including IBM, Novell, Red Hat and Sony. The gist of the Journal’s story is OIN members want to buy the graphics patents to head off potential patent trolls who might be interested in acquiring them to use against open-source vendors.
