There's been some buzz lately about Microsoft patenting some .NET technologies. Jim Miller is one of the main forces behind the CLI, one of the smartest guys I know, and one of the nicest. Today he had this to say on a Rotor listserv sponsored by the University of Pisa.
As one of the inventors on that patent as well as the person heading up the standardization efforts for the CLI, I'd like to explain why I've never felt the two are in conflict.
The ECMA process requires that all patents held by member companies that are essential for implementing its standards are available under "reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) terms" for the purpose of implementing those Standards. This is the normal condition used in all International Standards organizations, including both ECMA and ISO.
But Microsoft (and our co-sponsors, Intel and Hewlett-Packard) went further and have agreed that our patents essential to implementing C# and CLI will be available on a "royalty-free and otherwise RAND" basis for this purpose.
Furthermore, our release of the Rotor source code base with a specific license on its use gives wide use to our patents for a particular
(non-commercial) purpose, and as we explicitly state we are open to additional licenses for other purposes.
