Windows Emulation on GNU/Linux (Wine) hampered by Borland Patent
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In May 2005 it became apparent to a large public that some Microsoft Windows programs could not be brought to run on Linux because of a patent held by Borland. Affected GNU/Linux components were GCC and Wine. A public dialogue with Borland began. Although Borland's representatives repeated Borland's traditional attitude that patents "suck" and are collected for defensive purposes only, the problem appeared difficult to solve. The question moreover arises, which of the legislative means currently under discussion in Europe would solve it.
News & Chronology
2005-05-12 US Borland: patents suck, no general solution for OSS available
2005-05-12 US Slashdot: Winelib Hobbled by Exception-Handling Patent
2005-05-12 US ZDNet: Wine development stifled by software patent
2005-05-12 US Builder: Wine development stifled by software patent
2005-05-01 DE Wine Conference -- In a talk at the Developer Conference in Stuttgart Wine developer Dimitri O. Paun points out restrictions of Winelib development due to a Borland software patent. FFII's report about the conference sparks further media echo.
Summary
In May 2005 it became apparent to a large public that the Windows Emulator Wine can not function properly because of a patent held by Borland. Wine emulates the Microsoft Windows environment under Linux, so that programs such as Microsoft Office, that would normally not run under Linux, can be run there. Wine is thus a crucial component for bridging the compatibility barriers and enabling a fair competition of the operating systems.
A public uproar on media such as Slashdot prompted a reaction from Borland. As usual in such cases, previous contact attempts led nowhere and if Borland grants a license this time, the free software projects will still have a problem, because they will in some way have to restrict the four freedoms associated with their code:
The Wine case can also be used as a test case for various provisions proposed in the European Parliament, e.g. which interoperability provision would solve it? which patentability provisions would kill the patent? Under the Council's proposal, the full impact of the US problems would come through to Europe.
Links
Claims of the US Patent
Claim 1
In a development system for compiling source listings into program code for operating a digital computer, said digital computer having a microprocessor and a system memory, said source listings comprising data and functions operative on said data, some of said data being stored in stack-based variables which are local to a particular function, an improved method for registering an exception handler with the computer, the method comprising:
- allocating a portion of said system memory to be stack memory, for last-in, first-out storage of stack-based variables associated with functions; and
- for at least one function executed during runtime operation of the program code, registering an exception handler with the computer by:
- storing in said stack memory all stack-based variables associated with said at least one function, and
- after storage of all stack-based variables associated with said at least one function, pushing an exception registration record onto said stack memory describing a particular exception handler which is to be invoked upon occurrence of any exceptions which arise during operation of said at least one function, paid exception registration record storing a pointer to a previous exception registration record registered for another function whose execution has begun but has yet to complete, wherein said exception registration record describing a particular exception handler is stored on one end of said stack memory during execution of said at least one function.
Borland patents at the EPO
According to Depatisnet family search, the US patent #5,628,016 was applied for in the USA only and thus does not have any European cousins.
A search in the FFII's epat database yielded a few similar patents owned by Borland which show that the European Patent Office's technicity requirements are no serious obstacle to the granting of similar patents in Europe. In fact the Borland patents are precisely the kind of software patents which the EPO would like to be seen as granting: improvements in speed and use of data space for computing in general (without much of a drift toward specific application in the area of business processes). The most recent granted Borland application EP1188110 (about use of variables in programming languages) directly uses the EPO's new magic formula "computer-implemented invention", which was introduced in 2000 and written into the examination guidelines in 2001.
Effects of the EP Amendments
Various groups of the European Parliament have proposed amendments which reinstate a meaningful interpretation of the European Patent Convention. The effects of these on the above example patents could be that
- the patents are not granted/upheld because
- the claimed objects are regarded as programs for computers in the context of patent law (Kauppi/Zwiefka/NGL definition of program for computers)
- improvements in processing speed are not technical contributions (Art 4B)
- data processing is not a field of technology (Art 3A)
- the use of the patents for making MS Windows programs run on Linux falls under the interoperability exemption of Art 6a and is not an infringment
- However it is unsure whether SEH is introduced "for the sole purpose of ensuring interoperability", since it also improves compilation efficiency
- The interoperability exception would thus be useless if program claims (Art 5(2)) are allowed
- Even if the Borland patents are upheld without program claims, Winelib would still have to restrict the scope of use of their SEH-related code and thereby violate provisions of the GNU GPL. In a strict sense, Wine would become non-free software.
This short cursory analysis shows that the interoperability amendment (in some of its variants) can alleviate the problem but only the patentability amendments can solve it.
