Patent Pledge
As a leading global cloud provider headquartered in Europe and now with major data centers in the U.S., OVHcloud is committed to an open, sovereign cloud and recognizes the crucial role of open-source technology. In keeping with our values of trust, collaboration and dedication to interoperability and reversibility, OVHcloud supports and contributes to open-source communities that are integral to our ecosystem. Our beliefs are entrenched in our corporate culture and backed by our Patent Pledge.
As we continue to expand internationally, the escalating threat of software patents and patent trolls leaves us no alternative but to build our own software patent portfolio on a purely defensive basis. Our goal is to protect OVHcloud from the risks presented by software patents in the cloud domain and discourage any open-source infringement based on software patents.
In support of our open innovation strategy, we are members of the Open Invention Network (OIN), the largest-ever, non-aggressive patent community supporting freedom of action in Linux as a critical element of free software. We also participate in the GaiaX project, a European project with the objective of guaranteeing interoperability standards to ensure users are not locked into a provider.
We continue to pursue additional initiatives to protect our values and ecosystem and will not renege on any previously granted rights. To clarify and make our patent approach fully transparent, we issue the following irrevocable commitment, to be updated at least every three years as we continue to work in favor of open-source.
Our pledge:
When we distribute Open-Source Software, OVHcloud agrees to use only Open-Source Licenses, which helps to limit the risks posed by software patents (primarily the Apache 2.0, Eclipse Public License 2.0, and GNU General Public License 3.0 licenses). As such, and provided that the associated Open-Source Licenses are properly complied with, Software Patents will not be enforced against any natural or legal person using Open-Source Software distributed by OVHcloud.
Furthermore, OVHcloud agrees not to use the Software Patents it is in full ownership of against any person or entity that develops, distributes, uses or sells a service based on an Open-Source Community Project. Nevertheless, OVHcloud reserves the right to terminate this commitment to protect itself, its affiliates or the Open-Source Community Project against any beneficiary who files a lawsuit or other legal proceeding against OVHcloud's Intellectual Property rights or an Open-Source Community Project. However, OVHcloud cannot guarantee that the technologies covered by its patents do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of a third party and disclaims all guarantees as to the validity or applicability of its patents.
Definition:
"Open Source License" refers to any license that complies with the criteria defined by the Free Software Foundation or/and any license that complies with the principles defined by the Open Source Initiative, as listed on https://spdx.org/licenses/.
"Open Source Software" refers to any software (including the computer program, the preparatory design material, the source code, the object code and the executable code of that computer program, as well as all elements necessary for its governance) made available under an Open Source License.
“Software Patents” refers to all patents held by OVHcloud relating to computer-implemented inventions, as listed in the Appendix.
"Open Source Community Project" refers to any Open Source Software publicly available and fully available online in its latest version.
Appendix 1: FAQ
Quels sont les brevets objet de la présente déclaration ?
Tous les brevets logiciels détenus à 100% par OVHcloud tels que listés en Annexe 2.
OVHcloud est-elle la seule société à articuler Open Source et ces brevets de la sorte ?
Non, bien entendu, même si toutes les organisations ne sont pas engagées de la même manière en matière de brevets et d’Open Source. Nos pratiques se rapprochent ainsi des actions réalisées de longue date par des acteurs comme RedHat, IBM, Mozilla, Google et bien d’autres.
Si vous ne croyez pas aux brevets logiciels, pourquoi ne pas plutôt les invalider ?
La réforme des brevets est un projet à long terme, sans garantie de succès. OVHcloud a besoin d’une stratégie qui soit la meilleure pour son environnement actuel. Mais ces objectifs ne sont pas en conflit, et nous accueillons favorablement une véritable solution de réforme des brevets à long terme.
Si j’utilise un développement OVHcloud en open source disponible sur GitHub, ai-je à me soucier d’éventuels brevets ?
Non. Tant que le développeur respecte les termes de la licence Open Source, il bénéficie d’une licence sur un éventuel brevet lié à ce développement.
Que vient ajouter le Patent Pledge si les sources du développement sont déjà en open source ?
Le Patent Pledge permet aux développeurs d’utiliser la méthode ou le protocole protégé par le brevet tout en conservant leur liberté de le développer à leur manière.
Qu’adviendra-t-il pour les développements qui auront bénéficié du Patent Pledge si OVHcloud décidait de mettre un terme à cet engagement ?
Comme en cas de changement de licence, par exemple, OVHcloud ne pourra ni revenir en arrière ni attaquer une solution utilisant un brevet logiciel visé par le Patent Pledge et développée lorsque celui-ci était en vigueur.
Appendix 2: List of Software Patents
| Title | Country | Patent Application - Number | Blog article |
| METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DEFINING A WEB SITE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY | US | 16/030,445 | |
| METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DEFENDING AN INFRASTRUCTURE AGAINST A DISTRIBUTED DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK | EP | 18315013.5 | |
| SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DEVICE MIGRATION | EP | 18315018.4 | |
| METHOD FOR IMPROVED AUTOMATED SOFTWARE UPDATE UPON DEPLOYMENT OF A NETWORKING APPARATUS | EP | 18315023.4 | |
| SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OPERATING A NETWORKING DEVICE | EP | 18315022.6 | |
| SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OPERATING A NETWORKING DEVICE | EP | 18315024.2 | |
| METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING SERVICE REDUNDANCY BETWEEN A MASTER SERVER AND A SLAVE SERVER | EP | 18315021.8 | |
| SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR APPLYING A CONFIGURATION | EP | 18315025.9 | |
| SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONNECTION MANAGEMENT | EP | 18315038.2 | |
| METHOD AND DATA PACKET CLEANING SYSTEM FOR SCREENING DATA PACKETS RECEIVED AT A SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE | EP | 18315043.2 | |
| METHOD FOR ATTRACTING USERS TO A WEB PAGE AND SERVER IMPLEMENTING THE METHOD | US | 16/244,494 | |
| SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONFIGURING VIRTUAL NETWORKS | EP | 18315045.7 | |
| SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE AND METHODS OF PREDICTING AND DETECTING POTENTIAL ANOMALIES AT THE SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE | EP | 18315048.1 | |
| SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR NETWORK MANAGEMENT | EP | 19315009.1 | |
| SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR OPERATING A DATA CENTER BASED ON A GENERATED MACHINE LEARNING PIPELINE | EP | 19315010.9 | |
| METHOD OF DEPLOYING A NETWORK CONFIGURATION IN A DATACENTER HAVING A POINT OF PRESENCE | EP | 19315011.7 | |
| METHOD OF AND SYSTEM FOR CLUSTERING SEARCH QUERIES (Priority only) | US | 16/518,170 | |
| METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SUPERVISING A HEALTH OF A SERVER INFRASTRUCTURE | EP | 19315028.1 | https://blog.ovhcloud.com/alerting-based-on-ipmi-data-collection/ |
| SELF-ENCRYPTING FLASH DRIVE | US | 14/191,687 | |
| SELF-ENCRYPTING FLASH DRIVE | US | 15/077,106 | |
| HIERARCHICAL FLASH TRANSLATION LAYER | US | 14/067,015 | |
| MAGNETIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY JOURNAL | US | 14/065,641 | |
| MAGNETIC RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY JOURNAL FOR MULTI-LEVEL CELL FLASH MEMORY | US | 14/065,589 | |
| LOCK-FREE RAID IMPLEMENTATION IN MULTI-QUEUE ARCHITECTURE | US | 15/494,601 | |
| LOCK-FREE RAID IMPLEMENTATION IN MULTI-QUEUE ARCHITECTURE | US | 16/163,236 | |
| LOCK-FREE DATAPATH DESIGN FOR EFFICIENT PARALLEL PROCESSING STORAGE ARRAY IMPLEMENTATION | US | 15/600,405 | |
| PCIE SWITCH WITH DATA AND CONTROL PATH SYSTOLIC ARRAY | US | 15/494,606 | |
| PCIE SWITCH WITH DATA AND CONTROL PATH SYSTOLIC ARRAY | US | 16/288,924 | |
| REMOTE VIRTUAL ENDPOINT IN A SYSTOLIC ARRAY | US | 15/844,487 | |
| HIGH PERFORMANCE RAID OPERATIONS OFFLOAD WITH MINIMIZED LOCAL BUFFERING | US | 15/844,501 | |
| GALOIS FIELD PIPELINED MULTIPLIER WITH POLYNOMIAL AND BETA INPUT PASSING SCHEME | US | 15/836,491 | |
| AUTO ZERO COPY APPLIED TO A COMPUTE ELEMENT WITHIN A SYSTOLIC ARRAY | US | 15/844,505 | |
| SYSTEM MEMORY CONTROLLER WITH ATOMIC OPERATIONS | US | 15/849,537 | |
| SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ACCESSING NON-VOLATILE MEMORY AND WRITE ACCELERATION CACHE | US | 16/294,028 | |
| Distributed State Machine for High Availability of Non-Volatile Memory in Cluster Based Computing Systems | US | 16/395,738 | |
| Target Optimized Auto Provisioning of Storage in a Discoverable Storage Network | US | 16/565,889 | |
| FLEXIBLE RAID DRIVE GROUPING BASED ON PERFORMANCE | US | 16/703,617 | |
| EXTENT BASED RAID ENCODING | US | 16/703,620 | |
| Elastic Scaling in a Storage Network Environment | US | 16/697,626 |