The Apache Software Foundation can use the WS-Security specification in its open source Axis SOAP stack, an Apache official said on Friday. At issue had been a clause that may have prevented users of Axis from distributing the WS-Security technology in the stack without first getting clearance from specification developers IBM and Microsoft. “They (both IBM and MSFT) don’t have patents. So we don’t need to sign the license. Since we don’t sign the license, we don’t have to do anything special/specific,” said Apache official Davanum Srinivas in an email. WS-Security is part of the WS-* Web services specification stack. Apache will sit back and take a breather before determining what plans it may have for use of any other WS-* specifications, Srinivas said. Asked for comments, Microsoft referred back to its earlier statement from July 8, in which the company said that WS-Security was an open standard at OASIS and that Microsoft had made a royalty-free license commitment for WS-Security. IBM could not be reached for comment on Friday. Technology Industry