Web Services to be Freed of Patents

Microsoft has just released a "Microsoft Open Specification Promise" related to thirty five web service patents. It is a similar promise made regarding Word Processing patents. The release of this promise was done in consultation with Red Hat. Mark Webbink, General Council for Red Hat stated “Red Hat believes that the text of the OSP gives sufficient flexibility to implement the listed specifications in software licensed under free and open source licenses. We commend Microsoft’s efforts to reach out to representatives from the open source community and solicit their feedback on this text, and Microsoft's willingness to make modifications in response to our comments.”