SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 11: After waging years of legal battles against firms working on open source technologies, Microsoft is now joining the Open Invention Network ("OIN"), a community dedicated to protecting Linux and other open source software programmes from patent risk.
The decision reflects a change in attitude of the software giant which earlier considered open sources technologies a threat to its business and alleged that these technologies violated their patent rights.
"We know Microsoft's decision to join OIN may be viewed as surprising to some; it is no secret that there has been friction in the past between Microsoft and the open source community over the issue of patents," Erich Andersen, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Microsoft wrote in a blog post. - IANS
