The Open Invention Network was created in 2005 as a white hat organization to protect Linux. It has considerable financial backing from Google, IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony. More than 800 organizations worldwide have joined the community by signing the free OIN license. A clamor recently has been growing for OIN to take steps to protect embedded Linux from patent pillagers. Toward that end, OIN recently welcomed to its ranks Wolfson Microelectronics, a developer of semiconductor devices and audio solutions for embedded Linux.
