This should not be shocking to many, but Microsoft has stated that they are not interested in joining the Open Invention Network (OIN). The OIN is a group that licenses their spurious software patents to anyone who pledges not to leverage their own spurious software patents against GNU/Linux, and Microsoft just is not willing to make that pledge at this time. Shocker.

"We are always evaluating licensing opportunities but don't have anything specific to say about OIN. However, we remain committed to building bridges within the industry," he said.

That response is a little more vague than that from a Microsoft spokesperson who told eWEEK previously that "while Microsoft actively participates in a wide variety of industry organizations, the company has no plans to join the OIN at this stage."

Much more interesting, to me anyhow, were the aspects of the article concerning Microsoft's licensing negotiations - in which it is revealed that Microsoft does indeed take the time to review individual allegedly infringed Microsoft software patents with prospective licensees, something they repeatedly have denied occurred in the Novell deal, and subsequently have declined responding to numerous public requests for specificity due to the prohibitive amount of paperwork (but they can produce a 6,000 page office document specification - go figure).

Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice resident of Intellectual Property and Licensing, countered that the software giant does disclose which patents are being infringed, but only during private licensing discussions with companies that are looking for good faith for ways of resolving the situation.

"We walk through a number of exemplary patents and go as deep as they want us to go. Our experience has been every time we've done that, it doesn't take companies a long time to figure out that there is an issue here," he said.

So how far into the 235 did Xandros and Linspire get before they capitulated, and why must these remain secret again? OIN CEO Jerry Rosenthal, who was also once vice president of IBM's Intellectual Property and Licensing business, asserts that these meetings are usually not secret nor confidential, and I would tend to believe he would have some familiarity with the process.