People love to compare Google and Microsoft. Here’s a comparison I found interesting:

Let’s look at the Google Patent License:

Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, Google hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable (except as stated in this License) patent license for patents necessarily infringed by implementation (in whole or in part) of this specification. If You institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the implementation of the specification constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses for the specification granted to You under this License shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed.

Compare that to Microsoft’s Community Promise:

Microsoft irrevocably promises not to assert any Microsoft Necessary Claims against you for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation, to the extent it conforms to one of the Covered Specifications, and is compliant with all of the required parts of the mandatory provisions of that specification (“Covered Implementation”), subject to the following:

This is a personal promise directly from Microsoft to you, and you acknowledge as a condition of benefiting from it that no Microsoft rights are received from suppliers, distributors, or otherwise in connection with this promise. If you file, maintain, or voluntarily participate in a patent infringement lawsuit against a Microsoft implementation of any Covered Specification, then this personal promise does not apply with respect to any Covered Implementation made or used by you. To clarify, “Microsoft Necessary Claims” are those claims of Microsoft-owned or Microsoft-controlled patents that are necessary to implement the required portions (which also include the required elements of optional portions) of the Covered Specification that are described in detail and not those merely referenced in the Covered Specification.

This promise by Microsoft is not an assurance that either (i) any of Microsoft’s issued patent claims covers a Covered Implementation or are enforceable, or (ii) a Covered Implementation would not infringe patents or other intellectual property rights of any third party. No other rights except those expressly stated in this promise shall be deemed granted, waived or received by implication, exhaustion, estoppel, or otherwise.

Behold! I have created and given to you a table:

Wow. I am HTMLicious!

Class Activities

1. Pretend you are a FLOSS developer: Which one would you rather be working under? (Assume you have not betrayed the community and acquired a secretive and exclusive patent deal on the side.)

2. Pretend you are Satan McDarl Ballmer-Gates, and the Year of Linux on the Desktop is arrived. The most common desktop environment is almost entirely built on “ohno” which is solely based on your technology, but covered under the Community Promise. Can you shut them hippies down or not, man?

3. Pretend you are a Megan Fox and I am Optimus Prime. Wait. That’s sexist. Oh my god, She’s so hot it’s making me sexist. Bitch.

Disclaimer

This table is my own analysis, if something is wrong or needs to be added let me know! You can even accuse me of hypocrisy and hint that I left it out/got it wrong intentionally when you do so, if you like.