17 March 2009, 16:33

Red Hat responds to patent criticism

In a posting by Rob Tiller, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel IP at Red Hat, the company rebuffs criticism over its filing of a patent on XML message routing related to the AMQP specification. Tiller says that the questions raised over the AMQP specifications "appear to originate in an attempt to spread FUD" and that there is "no reasonable, objective basis for controversy". He also points out that the AMQP Agreement, which is signed by those involved on working on AMQP, requires that everyone provide an irrevocable patent licence to those who use or implement AMQP.

He also reiterated that the purpose of Red Hat's patent portfolio is defensive and designed to "discourage patent lawsuits by giving us the ability to retaliate against potential patent aggressors". Tiller also points to the companies work on addressing the problems of the patent system, including supporting patent reform legislation, submitting a brief in the Bilski case and creating "an innovative patent settlement" in the FireStar case.

(djwm)

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