Re: Siemens powermanagment patent? [was Re: patent on O_ATOMICLOOKUP [Re: [PATCH] loopable tmpfs (2.4.17)]]

Alan Cox
2002-05-27T20:34:50Z

On Mon, 2002-05-27 at 18:36, Pavel Machek wrote:
> Hi!
>
> > > What, so there are _no_ patents or other restrictions on any of then
> > > commercial embedded OS vendor products? I would imagine that you need
> > > to pay some sort of license fee to those vendors in order to use their
> > > code for products you sell.
> >
> > Thousands of them. Some of them like the Siemens power management patent
> > really hurt Linux too.
>
> Can you elaborate on this one?

Siemens own a patent on what basically amounts to keeping per task power
management settings.(US 6,298,448)
>
> > I'd suggest Andrea does something else. Ask the Red Hat people for a formal
> > confirmation he can use it, just like IBM with RCU. I have this funny feeling
> > that he'll get an extremely positive response.
>
> Does he need to ask permission? Code is GPL-ed, "no additional
> restrictions" in GPL should shield him...

I think the GPL is sufficient, but if he wishes to be cautious and ask
for a formal confirmation Red Hat will be happy to oblige.

Alan