Open Invention Network signs Indian licensees

Two Indian technology companies, ClickforHelpIndia.com Private Limited and Quad One Technologies, have become licensees of Open Invention Network (OIN), a company formed in 2005 with investments from IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony to further the Linux System by acquiring patents and ensuring their availability to its licensees.

ClickforHelpIndia, a partner of the US-based ClickforHelp.com Inc, is an IT consultancy company catering to the needs of emerging and small-to-medium business.

The other company, Quad One Technologies, is an offshore software solutions firm offering application and product development services.

Linux is a free operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers from around the world.

According to chief executive officer Jerry Rosenthal, OIN has accumulated more than 100 strategic, worldwide patents and patent applications.

The patents are available to all OIN licensees as a part of the patent commons that the company is creating. This enables the licensees to continue to make corporate and capital expenditure investments in Linux.

Rosenthal told mediapersons here on Tuesday that many Indian companies were interested in OIN and the company was hopeful of having 100 Indian licensees by next year.

"We are committed to, and enthusiastically support open source software products and communities," ClickforHelpIndia chief executive officer Ken Fischer said, adding that "becoming an OIN licensee also means that we don't have to expend as many precious resources on intellectual property issues."