Linux defiance as TomTom capitulates to Microsoft

 

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Posted on 31 Mar 2009 at 07:59

TomTom has paid Microsoft to settle the companies' patent dispute - but open-source advocates claim the payout is no indication that Linux breaches Microsoft patents.

Microsoft filed suit in February claiming that TomTom's implementation of certain aspects of the Linux kernel violated its intellectual property.

The companies have settled the matter out of court, with TomTom paying Microsoft "for coverage under the eight car navigation and file management systems patents in the Microsoft case," according to a Microsoft statement. Microsoft also gets free coverage of four TomTom patents, effectively annulling a TomTom countersuit.

The sat nav maker will also remove functions relating to two Microsoft file-management patents from its products within two years, as part of the deal. TomTom customers are granted protection from patent infringement for that two-year period.

TomTom claims the deal is in "full compliance with its obligations under the GPLv2, and thus reaffirms our commitment to the open-source community."

Microsoft victory?

Open-source advocates are claiming Microsoft's victory doesn't necessarily mean that Linux breaches any of the software giant's patents.

Linux vendor Red Hat, which refused to enter a patent agreement with Microsoft, says TomTom may simply have capitulated to save expensive legal fees.

"Patent litigation is a difficult process, and there are many reasons besides the merits of the case that a defendant such as TomTom might have chosen to settle in the present economic environment," the company claims in a statement.

"As the terms of the settlement license have not, to our knowledge, been made public, it is not possible to comment on its compliance with open-source requirements and principles."

The Software Freedom Law Center agrees that the case proves nothing. "On the basis of the information we have, we have no reason to believe that TomTom's settlement agreement with Microsoft violates the license on the kernel, Linux, or any other free software used in its products," it claims.

"The settlement neither implies that Microsoft patents are valid nor that TomTom's products were or are infringing."

"The FAT filesystem patents on which Microsoft sued are now and have always been invalid patents in our professional opinion."