Re: IBM releases 500 patents

On Fri, Jan 14, 2005 at 10:28:52AM -0600, Bruno Wolff III wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 11, 2005 at 10:33:44 -0800,
> Elein Mustain <elein(at)tulip(dot)norcov(dot)com> wrote:
> > They probaly released the informix database patents.
> > This is pertinent to us as several of them were interesting
> > implementations of things like the function manager.
>
> From what I read of this, the way they released the patents isn't completely
> compatible with BSD licenses.

Is the only concern the commercialized offerings of PostgreSQL? It seems
that commercial entities could either negotiate terms with IBM or help
maintain a 'patent-free' branch of PostgreSQL. Yes, sub-optimal and a
good amount of work, but depending on what's to be gained by utilizing
some of the patents it might still be better for PostgreSQL overall.

I don't know how useful the IP in the patents is, but I'd hate to see it
dismissed out-of-hand because of licensing difficulties that could be
overcome.
--
Jim C. Nasby, Database Consultant decibel(at)decibel(dot)org
Give your computer some brain candy! www.distributed.net Team #1828

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