Microsoft clocks up 500 patents in two months
,----[ Quote ]
| However, the company also begun a broad intellectual property licensing push
| several years ago, under which it licenses technology to many companies big
| and small. The company has signed a slew of patent cross licensing deals
| since then, the most recent being Tuesday's deal with Japan's JVC.
|
| Trolling through filings can offer a glimpse of where a company is headed,
| but as with Apple's closely watched patent filings, seeing something in a
| patent application is far from a guarantee of what will eventually ship.
`----
http://bink.nu/news/microsoft-clocks-up-500-patents-in-two-months.aspx
Where the Heck is Canossa?
,----[ Quote ]
| I wrote back: "I'm trying to understand how logistically this will work. Is
| there some sort of 'clean room' in place to keep Mandriva developers from
| seeing any Turbolinux code that might fall under the alleged Microsoft
| patents or any code that Microsoft may have directly contributed to
| Turbolinux?"
|
| "The 10 or so engineers working in Manbo Labs have no access to any of the
| Turbo technology that is not is the lab scope. And everything in that scope
| is GPL," Banchilon replied.
|
| Not content with explaining it just to me, Banchilon reiterated these
| technical aspects, with more detail, on the Mandriva blog today.
| Specifically, he indicated what the scope of Manbo Labs would be:
|
| * The scope of work is about 100 low-level RPMs, all in GPL
| * Product will be available for public release under GPL
| * Development is public, made on our Cooker environment and associates
| the community
|
| Is that enough to assuage the fears of the community? Hopefully so. I think
| the two companies need to help each other technically and it sounds as if
| Mandriva is taking care not to get involved in Microsoft's shenanigans.
|
| It's a matter to trust. Mandriva has not compromised their values before, and
| I think that's earned them the benefit of the doubt.
`----
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-01-18-022-26-OP-MD-TL
Just lots of uncertainty and not m/any definite answers.
Related:
Mandriva/TurboLinux partnership raises questions
,----[ Quote ]
| The delay in the announcement is particularly interesting, especially for the
| fact that last October was also the month that Microsoft and TurboLinux
| entered into a collaboration agreement, complete with the ever-dubious patent
| agreements.
|
| Seeing as Mandriva had refused to enter such an agreement with Microsoft, it
| may have wanted the dust to settle on the Microsoft/TurboLinux deal before
| going public on the partnership. This was probably worsened by the fact that
| it was in open conflict with Microsoft over a deal with the Nigerian
| government. Mandriva accused the Redmondians of hijacking the deal, but
| eventually won the contract.
`----
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2049
Mandriva and Turbolinux Announce a Partnership and Create a Joint Development
Lab Called Manbo-Labs
,----[ Quote ]
| Turbolinux Noriko Otake, otake@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or International Business
| Division, +81-3-5766-1142 ib@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or Mandriva Vanessa Wall,
| +33-(0)1-40-41-97-29 vwall@xxxxxxxxxxxx Mandriva and Turbolinux announce a
| partnership by creating a lab named: Manbo-Labs. This Lab is the result of an
| agreement between Mandriva and Turbolinux to share resources and technology
| to release a common base system on each
| of the Linux distributions.
`----
http://www.pr-inside.com/mandriva-and-turbolinux-announce-a-r388977.htm
|
|
