FYI: PUBPAT Sends Open Letter to Sun Seeking Answers

[Henk Elegeert]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

SUN PATENT GRANT UNCLEAR: PUBPAT Sends Open Letter to Sun
Seeking Answers

NEW YORK -- The Public Patent Foundation ("PUBPAT") sent Sun
Microsystems Chairman and CEO, Scott McNealy, an open letter
today about the announcement earlier this week that Sun was
granting the open source software community access to more
than 1,600  patents.  PUBPAT's letter, written by Executive
Director, Dan Ravicher, told Mr. McNealy that there are
serious questions about what Sun really means to do with its
patent grant and that free and open source software
developers need clarification in order to get a handle on
when Sun can and cannot come after them for patent infringement.

"The announcement was so broad in comparison to the related
legal documents, that serious questions now exist regarding
what rights the public has to Sun's patents," PUBPAT said in
its letter.  "Free and open source software developers must
have clear answers to these questions so that they can
understand what rights they have to Sun's patents."

PUBPAT laid out several questions resulting from Sun's
patent grant, including which license must be used for
software to be safe from Sun's patents and whether Sun has
waived rights to make patent claims against software written
by anyone other than Sun.  There was also a question about
Sun's relationship with Microsoft, and how it may impact
patents and the open source community.

"In Sun's announcement, they make sweeping statements about
how the open source community will immediately gain access
to 1,600 active Sun patents for operating systems, but the
legal nitty-gritty behind the announcement shows that Sun
has retained the right to aim its entire patent portfolio at
GNU / Linux or any other free and open source operating
system, except, of course, for their soon to be released
version of Solaris," said Ravicher.  "Developers need to be
very careful about the details here and not be misled into
thinking Sun has given them more than it actually has."

More information about PUBPAT's open letter to Mr. McNealy
regarding Sun's patent grant, including a copy of the
letter, can be found at
http://www.pubpat.org/Educating_and_Advocating.htm.

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