LICENSING OPPORTUNITIES

Several technologies developed by Eolas are available for licensing. For more information, please send an inquiry email to licensing@eolas.com. Please make sure to: state the technology of interest, describe the intended application in detail, include specific product descriptions, estimate the potential market size, project the estimated first-year units sold, and provide complete licensee contact information.

Eolas' Position on Licensing '906 Technology for use in Open Source Software

There have been a number of news stories and commentaries in blogs that have misstated or misconstrued Eolas' intentions with respect to open source software that uses the technology covered by the '906 patent. We hope that the following FAQ will clear-up any confusion on this issue.

Question: Are the developers of open source software free to incorporate features and functions in their software products that infringe the '906 patent if they have not obtained a license from Eolas for the '906 technology for that product?

Answer: No. Any software that has features or functions that use the '906 patented technology must be covered by a written license or the software will be infringing. It does not matter whether the software is developed using closed proprietary source code or open source, any use of the '906 technology must be pursuant to a written license agreement.

Question: Mike Doyle, the founder and CEO of Eolas, has been quoted as saying that “the open source community has nothing to fear from Eolas.” So what did you mean by that?

Answer: Mike Doyle was responding to a reporter's question asking him whether Web developers will need to purchase an expensive license. He pointed out that Eolas has generally been willing to provide non-commercial users a royalty free license to the '906 technology. Of course any such license would be subject to certain written terms, conditions and obligations. Mike Doyle has previously been quoted that academic use is a category of non-commercial use that Eolas would generally license on a royalty free basis. On the other hand, if the '906 technology is incorporated in a commercial open source product, Eolas has been willing to license the '906 patent technology for use in such commercial open source software for very reasonable royalties. By “commercial software” we generally mean any software that is licensed to third parties in exchange for a fee, is used to generate revenue or is licensed to third parties who are permitted to use it for business purposes. Any company or institution that wishes to obtain a license to the '906 patent should contact our Chief legal officer Jim Stetson at jim@eolas.com .

Question: Do you have a fixed royalty rate for '906 patent licenses?

Answer: No. Eolas prices '906 patent licenses based on several factors such as, the particular use of the technology in the licensed product, the quantities licensed, the price of the licensed product and other business factors such as the extent the licensee's product supports the greater use of the '906 technology in the market place. Eolas supports open source software and is generally willing to consider granting more favorable royalty terms for open source products than it grants for closed proprietary source software. Consequently, prospective licensees need to provide Eolas with the necessary information before we can provide a royalty rate quote.

Copyright © 2006 Eolas Technologies Inc., all rights reserved. Eolas stands for “Embedded Objects Linked Across Systems” and is also the Gaelic word for “Knowledge”. Eolas, Musart&trade and “invented here.” are trademarks of Eolas Technologies Inc.