The Open Invention Network (OIN), a Linux advocacy group today said it is publicly seeking invention data that would effectively overturn three Microsoft patents that the software giant has charged are infringed by some implementations of the Linux kernel.

According to a report published online by the Wall Street Journal, the Open Invention Network (OIN) has announced plans to purchase 22 former Microsoft patents.

The Open Invention Network has launched a project to find prior art for Microsoft's patents on the FAT filesystem. The OIN believes that the FAT patents will not hold up to scrutiny and the organization hopes that the Linux community will assist in an effort to have it invalidated.

KDE e.V. is pleased to announce that we have joined the Open Invention Network community as a licensee. Open Invention Network was founded as a way to help defend the Linux ecosystem, and by extension much of the Free and Open Source software world, from the risks associated with software patents.

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal’s Nick Wingfield broke a story on Microsoft selling a group of patents to a third party. The end result of this story is good for Linux, even though it doesn’t placate fears of ongoing attacks by Microsoft.

Open Invention Network has announced it has decided to look for prior art on three of the Microsoft patents that were used in the TomTom litigation: Open Invention NetworkSM (OIN), a collaborative enterprise that enables innovation in open source and an increasingly vibrant ecosystem around Linux, today announced that U.S.

Microsoft tried to auction off some patents that they claim relate to Linux. Patent trolls could have bought them. Instead Open Invention Network (OIN) got them. Why would Microsoft wish to get rid of 22 patents that it presumably could sue Linux over? Let's try to imagine what might have happened.

The Open Invention Network is making good on its pledge to try to overturn the Linux-related patents that were contained in Microsoft’s recently settled litigation against TomTomNV.

Microsoft's aggressive defense of its intellectual property, which includes claims that Linux violates a number of its patents, is nothing more than "a marketing thing," according to Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel.