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.
Regards
Takayuki Tsunakawa
