Amazon and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have joined the patent-pending Open Invention Network (OIN) non-aggression consortium.
Founded in 2015, OIN buys patents and then licenses them for free to its members who have agreed not to enforce their own patents on Linux-based projects, within certain limits.
This can help combat the activity commonly known as “patent trolling”, where people try to enforce their patents far beyond their actual rights, often in an attempt to extort money.
What role will Amazon play?
Amazon uses a variety of Linux-based software for both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its retail operations.
The move will see Amazon commit its entire patent portfolio to a set of patents that can be freely used within OIN-defined open source projects.
Once OIN agrees to protect software, all members receive free Community Patent licenses to use that software.
Amazon says adding its patents to the pool helps reduce the risk of patent aggression for companies that innovate with open source.
Nithya Ruff, director of the Amazon Open Source Program Office, said, “Linux and open source are essential to many of our customers and are a key driver of innovation at Amazon.”
We are proud to support a wide range of open source projects, foundations and partners, and are committed to the long-term success and sustainability of open source as a whole.
They added: “By joining OIN, we continue to strengthen the open source communities and help ensure that technologies such as Linux continue to thrive and be accessible to all.”
It’s hard to say exactly why Amazon made the recent move, but it has definitely been supporting some open source initiatives recently.
For example, in May 2022, Amazon announced that it had injected $10 million in funding (opens in a new tab) to the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), joining other Big Tech sponsors such as Alphabet.
Amazon is no stranger to patent litigation.
In October 2022, it was reported that Chinese tech giant Huawei is suing Apple unnamed patent infringement. (opens in a new tab)