Office Professional Plus What do Linux vendors wan

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The Wall Road Journal is reporting that a group of open-source backers is poised to buy 22 graphics patents previously the home of Microsoft.The patents in query seem to include some or all the 3D-graphics-related ones that Microsoft purchased from SGI in 2002. Microsoft marketed these patents earlier this 12 months to a third-party patent broker, Allied Security Trust (AST). The Journal reported on September eight that AST is selling the patents to the Open Invention Network (OIN),microsoft Office 2010 keygen, a group of corporations including IBM, Novell,Office Professional Plus, Red Hat and Sony. The gist of the Journal;s story is OIN members need to purchase the graphics patents to head off possible patent trolls who may well be interested in obtaining them to use towards open-source vendors.I;ve asked OIN, AST and Microsoft for additional details and also have yet to listen to back from any of them.Update: Microsoft responded Tuesday afternoon. Spokesperson Michael Marinello sent the subsequent statement:“We marketed 22 patents to AST in July 2009. The terms were confidential. We acquired these patents several years ago as part of a larger business agreement with SGI.“We are constantly evaluating our patent portfolio – which recently received top ranking in the software industry — to ensure its makeup fits into the business goals of the organization. These patents were deemed to be non-core to our business and non-essential for our IP portfolio. When an interested buyer for this technology was identified, after discussing it both internally and together with the prospective buyer, we felt this was the right direction to go in relating to these specific patents.”Marinello advised me to get in touch with AST, as they own the patents now. I still have not heard back again from AST or OIN. But OIN issued a press release at 4 pm ET today confirming that it purchased the 22 patents from AST,Office Pro Plus 2007 Key, but offering no additional information and facts or particulars — not even a confirmation that the patents “read on Linux.” “To date, the Believe in (AST) has invested $40 million in patent purchases over its 30 months of operations,” the release said.The original WSJ story leaves me with a lot more than a few questions: Lately,Windows 7 Enterprise, Linux vendors have been steeling themselves towards the possibility of Microsoft pursuing them for alleged patent violations. But in this case — since Microsoft sold these patents — who were the OIN members worried about? Which trolls were lurking?The Journal cites an OIN official claiming that Microsoft presented the graphics patents as being “Linux-related” when it auctioned them off earlier this year. (Microsoft did not confirm this characterization in the Journal;s tale.) If the patents really are Linux-related, I;d think Microsoft would have wanted to hold onto them, to give the company a leg up in opposition to its Linux competitors, rather than sell the patents off, claiming they weren;t germane to Microsoft;s core business.What,Office Pro Plus 2010, exactly, do these 22 patents cover? Back in January 2002, The Register reported that Microsoft paid $63 million for SGI;s graphics patent portfolio. In July of that same yr, Microsoft was rattling the patent sabers over OpenGL. Microsoft officials said they had “feasible claims” on a technology called vertex programming, a technology that controls 3D effects like lighting. A ZDNet tale from that time noted that “The claims caused some consternation within the OpenGL Architectural Review Board (ARB), which governs the specification.” Anything else about this transaction of interest to you (in case I do get to talk to any of the parties in query later today)?