Microsoft ignited enmity be its assertion in Fortune mag on Monday that Linux and other open - source software infringe on 235 of the caller ’s patents . The software giant , which signed a controversial patent cross - licensing deal with Novell last November , is encouraging other companies to reach licensing agreements to adjudicate intellectual property claims . It has made companies nervous about whether they could eventually be targeted by lawsuits from Microsoft .
In an exclusive audience , Bill Hilf , general manager of platform strategy and conductor of Microsoft ’s work with open - source projects , verbalise with IDG News Service on the effects of the declaration on the exposed - source residential district . Before fall in Microsoft , Hilf was in charge of IBM ’s Linux and undefended - informant technical strategy and spend the last 12 years working with open - source software . What follow is an emended transcript of the interview .
IDG News Service : The Fortune story has caused a lot of concern over how Microsoft may proceed in regard to its patent of invention claims . Did you know Microsoft officials were going to reveal the number of letters patent ?
Hilf : We did . [ But ] the Fortune clause does not correctly represent our scheme . That ’s what has citizenry so inflamed . It looks like our strategy changed and we are moving in a new direction , but it has n’t . In the Novell trade , we say we had to figure out a way to solve these IP matter and we needed to compute out a direction for good interoperability with receptive - source product . The Fortune article make it look like we are going out on this litigation path .
Our strategy from everyone in the company — from [ Steve ] Ballmer to Brad Smith to me and everyone in between — has always been to permit and not sue as it relates to our cerebral holding . So we have no architectural plan to litigate . you could never say we ’ll never do anything in the future , but that ’s not our scheme . That clause spins it on the flak . The only new piece information in that article is that it just put a number on the patent of invention .
IDGNS : What was the aftermath after the tale run ?
Hilf : The people in the open - beginning residential area that I screw well … they contact me right away . All of the European guy I bed called me at 2 a.m. I told them what I told you . They said “ Okay , that ’s what I needed to hear . ” The other question I got was , to be very honest , “ Do you have a unlike scheme than the company ? ” which I did n’t understand at first . I said again , “ Do n’t look at Fortune magazine as the demonstration of the Microsoft scheme . ” It ’s the same scheme we ’ve had . I recall [ the effects of the story ] will be inadequate full term as people make that it look like Microsoft is on the attack . I retrieve farseeing terminus it will be hunky-dory and the employment will continue on .
IDGNS : In hindsight , do you retrieve it was a good idea for Microsoft to unfreeze the routine of patents it believe are being infringed ?
Hilf : What we hear back after the Novell deal was “ Give us more transparence . You say that there is IP involved , give us an understanding of what that is . ” So the attack was that if we give a figure and family of where these thing settle , peradventure that will help oneself people get an theme of the scope . We are very much scream out to commercial companies to license this stuff and resolve these effect . This is n’t like a trivial conception . There are a duet hundred important patents here .
IDGNS : Linux supporters have countered that Windows could be using technology that ’s in Linux . Given your knowledge of Linux and Windows , what do you cerebrate of that assertion ?
Hilf : People generalize so much . If you write a patent , it has to be very specific — you ca n’t have a generalized patent . No one patent the auto . The thought that perchance IBM invented the operating system thus Microsoft is previous in the secret plan is sort of silly . The operating system is a huge family , it ’s like “ self-propelling ” in many way . The challenge in all of this is … everyone wants to be a patent of invention lawyer or a jurist and make the decision if that ’s a real invention or not . At the end of the twenty-four hour period , the person who decide if it ’s an innovation of one society or another is a judge .
I in person believe that there ’s a wondrous amount of body of work that needs to be done in software program patent reform . However , the current principle still apply . It ’s still the means we do business today and how all other line of work work . So we still have to find slipway to work in the current system even though we do want it to be improved in the future .
IDGNS : Microsoft has made a lot of effort to extend an olive arm to the undecided - source residential district through programs such as Codeplex , an unresolved - source project share portal . But the community is jolly disordered by the Fortune story . Is that travel to hurt future cooperation ?
Hilf : There are three thing that we are doing : We ’re compete with Linux and Unix servers with Windows server , we ’re die to line up mode to interoperate between Linux and Windows because luck of our client run both and we desire to produce the open - source ecosystem as it relates to Microsoft software . There ’s no other strategy . There ’s no other hidden agenda . I ’m trying to be as readable as I can to mass that this is n’t a threat . We ’re not going out and attacking people . We ’re trying to solve an IP subject .
