Home - Open Invention Network

Recently Joined the OIN Community

About OIN

OIN is a defensive patent pool and community of patent non-aggression which enables freedom of action in Linux. Learn about OIN’s mission, team, supporters, and more.

OIN Community

Over 2,000 organizations have joined OIN. In support of patent non-aggression. For free access to OIN’s patents. And to gain royalty free access to Linux System patents of other OIN participants.

Our License Agreement

Available to all parties, a completed OIN license agreement provides entry to the OIN community and its benefits. Review the agreement, learn more, and sign up online.

OIN Linux System

The Linux System is the set of technologies in which OIN participants agree to cross-license patents to another. A shared zone of patent non-aggression to promote collaboration.

Press Room

OIN enables freedom of action in open source and Linux, which have been great sources of innovation. Find press releases, coverage, FAQs, resources and more here.

Linux Defenders

Linux Defenders is a program to eliminate poor quality patents. It does so through community prior art and defensive publication efforts, as described on the Linux Defenders site.

Press Mentions

August 01, 2017
At the heart of the Open Invention Network is its powerful cross-licence

June 03, 2017
The State of Open Source in Asia. This article first appeared in IAM issue 83, published by Globe Business Media Group - IP Division’. To view the issue in full, please go to www.iam-media.com.

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What people are saying…

By signing this agreement with the Open Invention Network we’re sending the world a strong message about DreamHost’s commitment to open source software. This is a clear shot across the bow of software patent trolls who have been stifling innovation and stretching the boundaries of the English language since the early 1990s.

Brett Dunst, DreamHost

The convergence of technology and finance has resulted in an increase in PAE litigation against financial services companies involving non-financial services-related patents.

Josh DeathTD Bank

The ecosystem in which we operate is changing rapidly. Innovation that was once squarely housed within the community and exclusively oriented towards its collective betterment is increasingly being conducted across a growing number of companies around the world. That growth is exciting, but there is no denying that with it comes a complex array of actors and interests, some of whom may be more opportunistic in their thinking when it comes to intellectual property rights. Ensuring that permission…

James MurdockBlockstream

Our project maintains a position against software patents, but joining OIN provides a safety net when it comes to the risks of such patents.

Pier Fiorini, Maui Project

Open Invention Network, working with its members and the Linux Foundation, pulled off a coup, managing to acquire some of the very patents that seem to have been at the heart of recent Microsoft FUD campaigns against Linux. Break out your white hats: the good guys won….let’s offer a big round of applause to Keith Bergelt and OIN, for their perfectly executed defense of the Linux community.

Jim Zemlin, Linux Foundation

The last thing we want in the DLT [Distributed Ledger Technology] ecosystem is as replay of the smart phone ‘patent wars’. Patent disputes are the ‘sport of kings’; it is expensive and to be avoided.

Marc KaufmanReedSmith

Open Invention Network, working with its members and the Linux Foundation, pulled off a coup…Break out your white hats: the good guys won….let’s offer a big round of applause to Keith Bergelt and OIN, for their perfectly executed defense of the Linux community.

Jim ZemlinHyperledger, The Linux Foundation

Our participation in OIN means we’ve promised to share our patents with other open-source companies working on Linux and OpenStack and it puts us in the company, once again, of our compatriots from the OpenStack foundation – IBM, Red Hat, HP, Canonical and others.

Gretchen Curtis, Piston Cloud Computing

OIN protects the open-source community through a patent cross-license for Linux and related open-source technologies. The license is free and available to companies, organizations, and individual developers if they agree not to assert their own patents against Linux.

Chris DiBonaGoogle

OSADL is convinced that joining oin is an important step towards protection of software investment, and as such OSADL is leading by example and advising its members to also do so.

Carsten Emde, OSADL

Recently Joined the OIN Community

About OIN

OIN Community

Our License Agreement

OIN Linux System

Press Room

Linux Defenders

Press Mentions

What people are saying…