The Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) has launched its online patent commons reference library, which is the foundation of its Patent Commons Project. The Patent Commons website will catalogue existing patent commitments from companies and individuals who wish to retain ownership of their patents, and will provide information about different types of pledges and covenants and how they work.

This web site, patentcommons.org, hosts searchable databases containing more than 500 patents that have been pledged to date and more than a dozen technical standards supported by patent pledges and covenants. Resources of the library are freely available to developers, users and vendors, who can easily and quickly view information about patents and technology pledges benefiting open source software and standards.

"The OSDL Patent Commons Project is an important first step in helping customers, vendors and the development community understand the different commitments that have been made and how they work to reduce the chances of patent litigation,"' said Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL. "The Project is focused on documenting the growing number of pledges and other legal solutions directed at the software patent issue, so that developers can innovate and collaborate as free as possible from litigation."

In the coming months, plans are for the site to expand to include other legal solutions that benefit the open source community, including open source licenses, indemnification programs and information for organizations and individuals who wish to contribute to the commons.

Current members include such industry leaders as CA, IBM, Intel Novell, Red Hat and Sun. OSDL welcomes other IT vendors, corporations, organizations, government agencies and individuals to participate.

"Sun applauds the work of the OSDL Patent Commons project and its library of patent pledges and non-assertion covenants," said Simon Phipps, chief open source officer, Sun. "As the largest commercial code contributor to the various open source communities, Sun is well aware of the many obstacles these communities face due to the uncertainties that surround today's software patents, which neither patent pools nor targeted pledges really solve. This project offers a concrete and important step in the right direction, as it will help all open source communities." [...read more...]

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