Re: How can we submit code patches that implement our (pending) patents?

On Wed, Jul 4, 2018 at 2:28 AM Tsunakawa, Takayuki <
tsunakawa(dot)takay(at)jp(dot)fujitsu(dot)com> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> As I asked at the PGCon developer meeting this year, we'd like to offer
> our company's patents and patent applications license to the
> PostgreSQL community free of charge. If I heard correctly at that time, we
> could continue this discussion during the unconference, but I missed that
> opportunity (I'm sorry). So, please let me continue the consultation
> here. If some other mailing list is appropriate such as pgsql-core, let me
> know (but I hope open discussion will lead to better and fair ideas and
> conclusion.)
>
>
> There are three ideas. Is there any effective idea?
>
>
>
> (1)
> Share patents through a patent pool for open source communities. Our
> company, Fujitsu Limited, is a licensee member of Open Invention Network
> (OIN). And PostgreSQL is the protection target of OIN as listed
> here:
>
>
> http://www.openinventionnetwork.com/joining-oin/linux-system/linux-system-table/?cat_id=14&type=table
>
> Google, IBM, Red Hat, Toyota, and other big names are the big sponsors.
> The basic membership is free.
>
>
> (2)
> For each patch we submit to the community that implements our patents,
> include in the mail body something like "3. Grant of Patent License" in
> Apache License 2.0:
>
> Apache License, Version 2.0
> https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
>
>
> (3)
> Put up a page on our company web site that's similar to Red Hat's "Patent
> Promise", which is restricted to PostgreSQL.
>
>
> FYI, I've consulted SFLC (Software Freedom Law Center) about this matter,
> and I've just got a reply "We'll be in touch." I'm waiting for the next
> response.
>

Some fresh thoughts on the top-level matter.

I think the general concern of everyone here is that the PostgreSQL
copyright license is a very broad license. It allows people to take the
code, build new products possibly unrelated, using the code, and then
commercialize them. While a patent license that grants everything needed
to make full use of the copyright license is not quite the same as just
handing the patents over to the public domain, it seems likely that this is
close enough to be indistinguishable from the perspective of your business.

For example a competitor of yours could copy the relevant pieces of the
PostgreSQL code, refactor this into a library, and then use it as a
derivative work and this would be entirely within the copyright license.
They could then license that library out, and you could not use your
patents or copyrights to stop them. As such, a patent license would
probably be very similar from a business perspective to a global public
grant even though the two strike me as something which might not offer
protection in the case of a clean-room implementation.

I certainly wouldn't be opposed to accepting patents where a license was
granted to the PostgreSQL Global Developer Group and the community as a
whole to make full use of the patents in any way covered by the copyright
license of PostgreSQL (i.e where any use that involves utilizing the
copyright license for PostgreSQL extends to the patents in question). But
I am not sure that a business case would be able to be made for releasing
any patents under such a license since it means that for anyone else, using
the patents even in commercial software becomes trivial and enforcement
would become very difficult indeed.

--
Best Regards,
Chris Travers
Database Administrator

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