January 28, 2005

Sun Microsystems announces that it will release to the open source community, more than 1,600 patents related to the Sun OpenSolaris operating system.

The company said the move is designed to facilitate innovation and help users get new open source products and technologies to market faster, by removing the need to obtain patent licenses from Sun.

This ensures OpenSolaris developers and customers will no longer need patent protection or indemnity from Sun's other participants, Sun said. Following the release, the open source community will gain access to operating system technologies that include kernel technology, file systems and network management, among others.

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"As the largest business contributor to the open source community, Sun has always been an ardent believer in open standards and the open source process going back to the inception of this company," says Scott McNealy, Chairman and CEO, Sun Microsystems.

"The release of more than 1,600 patents associated with the Solaris OS far eclipses any other vendor's contribution. Today represents a huge milestone for Sun, for the community, for developers and for customers."

Sun said the approach also reflects its belief that license agreements for software "are not as significant as the company who stands behind its products." Current issues related to international patent law and increased scrutiny in the US, were also factors, Sun said.

Source: The WHIR