The elusive, royalty-free patent licence for Mono

By Sam Varghese
Monday, 25 May 2009 05:45

Opinion and Analysis

I wrote to Dr Istvan Sebestyn, the secretary-general of the organisation, on April 25, asking: "I understand that the terms of the licences to the patents which Microsoft holds on the .NET development platform are available from your organisation. I also understand that the terms of use of these patents are royalty-free, reasonable and non-discriminatory. I would be grateful if you could send me the details of the terms of the licence."

He replied two days later, pointing out, "Ecma does not have anything to do with possible licensing of .NET. But Microsoft is one of our members, so I have asked them whom to contact there – if anything is needed, what I just do not know."

Dr Sebestyn added: "My contact at Microsoft said that you should contact Peggy Moloney there, who would be able to help you."

I wrote to Ms Moloney on April 28, asking for the same information: "I understand that the terms of the licences to the patents which Microsoft holds on the .NET development platform permit people to obtain a royalty-free, reasonable and non-discriminatory licence to use them. I would be grateful if you let me know exactly how one obtains such a licence."

I also asked her about the variance in the terms for the licensing of Moonlight, a clone of Microsoft's Silverlight, using which the company hopes to capture the market that is dominated by Adobe's Flash. De Icaza is behind this project as well.

My query ran thus: "I'm also seeking to find out why there is some variance in the terms under which one can use Moonlight - Novell and Microsoft appear to say different things.

"Novell says that Moonlight 'will be available for Linux users on any distribution'.

"However, Microsoft says clearly that only Novell can supply Moonlight to end-users: "Microsoft, on behalf of itself and its Subsidiaries, hereby covenants not to sue Downstream Recipients of Novell and its Subsidiaries for infringement under Necessary Claims of Microsoft on account of such Downstream Recipients’ use of Moonlight Implementations to the extent originally provided by Novell during the Term and, if applicable, the Extension or Post-Extension Period, but only to the extent such Moonlight Implementations are used to provide Plug-In Functionality. The foregoing covenants shall survive termination of the Agreement, but only as to specific copies of such Moonlight Implementations distributed during the Term, and if applicable, the Extension or Post-Extension Period."

There's a been a deafening silence since then. There the matter stands after nearly a month. You would think that's a decent period for anyone to think things through and respond - if the intention of doing so exists.

To me, it looks this licence is as real as the unicorn. Or maybe Santa Claus. I think Mono fans need to think of a fresh defence when people talk about the dangers of patent suits arising over this technology. The licence talk has worn more than a little thin.