At Thu, 19 Sep 2013 10:10:24 +0200, Rémi Letot wrote: > > Ludovic Marcotte <lmarco...@inverse.ca> > writes: > > > 1. create an Active Sync bundle in SOGo for synchronization > > 2. license it under a free but non-GPL (BSD, for example) > > 3. distribute it for free > > > > We can't use the GPL because of patents > > restrictions. Z-Push/OPush/Synchotron are all using patented > > technologies without a license and Microsoft currently does not > > license to GPL implementations - so using these is not an option. > > Don't forget that software patents are invalid in big parts of the > world, so these technologies are not infringing anything there. > > > Since the addition of Active Sync support in SOGo would be a > > server-side implementation, there would be a per-mailbox fee to use > > it. That fee, would have to be paid to Microsoft directly. On our end, > > everything would be free of use. > > Again, that fee would only apply where software patents are valid, which > is great news for European users like me :-)
I would advise anyone who is going to professionally run an ActiveSync service to not just think software patents are invalid in Europe and at least ask for legal advice. The situation is unfortunately a lot more complex than software being patentable or not. In Europe "software as such" is not patentable and what "as such" exactly means isn't really clear. The EPO interpretation is very narrow and the EPO has granted a lot of software patents. I'm not following all the things going on in software patent world anymore, but as far as I remeber a UK court did invalidate a patent because it was on "software as such". On the other hand a Dutch court enforced a software patent from Apple on the photo gallery of some Samsung phones. I don't know if Samsung had tried to get the patent invalidated on the basis that is a patent on "software as such", but I think we can't just disregard all microsoft patents on the basis that software patents aren't valid in Europe. Kind regards, Jeroen Dekkers -- users@sogo.nu https://inverse.ca/sogo/lists
