IBM’s decision to make available 500 patents for open source access marks a significant step forward for open standards, and at the same time gives Big Blue a foundation on which to build some of its own technologies.To be sure, IBM has thousands of patents, and opening up 500 of them will not change the company’s character. Yet the move advances progress of open source development.“The buzz in the open source community about this is very, very positive,” said Gordon Haff, a senior analyst with Illuminata. “It lets IBM continue to build on its community strength.” The pledge is applicable to any individual, community, or company working on or using software that meets the Open Source Initiative (OSI) definition of open source software now or in the future, IBM said in a statement. IBM said it hopes to encourage an industry-wide “patent commons” in which patents are used to establish a platform for further innovations in areas of broad interest to information technology developers and users. “Our pledge today is the beginning of a new era in how IBM will manage intellectual property to benefit our partners and clients,” Dr. John E. Kelly, IBM senior vice president, Technology and Intellectual Property, said in a statement. “Unlike the preceding Industrial Economy, the Innovation Economy requires that intellectual property be deployed for more than just providing the owner with freedom of action and income generation.” The 500 patents include U.S. Patent number 5,185,861, registered in 1993, which covers technology that helps microprocessors use their memory caches efficiently; and U.S. patent number 5,617,568, registered in 1997, for allowing non-Windows based systems to act as file servers for Windows-based clients, IBM Asia Pacific spokeswoman June Namioka told IDG News Service. Other examples include patents related to handwriting recognition, she said. A list of the 500 patents concerned can be found on IBM’s Web site. Technology Industry