[ubuntu-mono] [Bug 70651] Re: Mono is likely patent encumbered

[Conrad Knauer]

It may indeed be FUD (and Microsoft is certainly known for doing that,
ne?) but there may in fact be actual patents involved and so this really
needs to be evaluated in detail by someone who has a legal background,
but that's not me :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_.NET_Framework

"While Microsoft and their partners hold patents for CLI and C#, ECMA
and ISO requires that all patents essential to implementation be made
available under "reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms." In
addition to meeting these terms, the companies have agreed to make the
patents available royalty-free. However, this does not apply for the
part of the .NET Framework which is not covered by the ECMA/ISO
standard, which includes Windows Forms, ADO.NET, and ASP.NET. Patents
that Microsoft holds in these areas may deter non-Microsoft
implementations of the full framework."

but... see the URL in the first post regarding RAND.  Then:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_%28software%29#Mono_and_Microsoft.27s_patents

"Mono's implementation of those components of the .NET stack not
submitted to the ECMA for standardization was the source of patent
violation concerns for much of the life of the project. In particular,
discussion has taken place about whether Microsoft could destroy the
Mono project through patent suits. The problematic parts are not the
core technologies submitted to the ECMA or the Unix/Gnome-specific
parts. The patent concerns primarily relate to technologies developed by
Microsoft on top of the .NET Framework, such as ASP.NET, ADO.NET and
Windows Forms, i.e. parts composing Mono's Windows compatibility stack.
These technologies are today not fully implemented in Mono and not
required for developing Mono-applications. Not providing a patented
capability would weaken the interoperability, but it would still provide
the free software / open source software community with good development
tools, which is the primary reason for developing Mono.  However, on
November 2, 2006, Microsoft and Novell announced a joint agreement
whereby Microsoft agreed to not sue Novell or its customers for patent
infringement.  According to a statement on the blog of Mono project
leader Miguel de Icaza, this agreement extends to Mono but only for
Novell developers and users."

Miguel de Icaza's blog post in question is here:
http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2006/Nov-04.html

He states "I do not know of any patents which Mono infringes."

The problem is that patents are like landmines; if Microsoft believes
one or more of its patents are being infringed upon by Mono, companies
who decide to use Ubuntu could be in trouble if MS wanted to make an
example of them by suing.

IMHO it would be in everyone's best interest to move away from MS-based
technologies (e.g. Mono) and towards ones where we know that patents
aren't an issue (e.g. Java).

-- 
Mono is likely patent encumbered
https://launchpad.net/bugs/70651