“The Open Grid Services Architecture vision for the convergence
of Web services and Grid computing received a big boost today when
IBM announced that its contributions to the effort will be
royalty-free.“‘IBM is pleased to announce that any essential patent claims,
held by IBM, that are necessary to implement the ‘Grid Services
Specification’ document submitted to the Global Grid Forum, will be
licensed on a royalty-free basis,’ IBM Grid Computing General
Manager Tom Hawk wrote in a letter to Charlie Catlett, chair of the
standard-setting Global Grid Forum.“‘The ‘Grid Services Specification’ is built upon both Grid and
Web Services technologies, referred to as the Open Grid Services
Architecture (OGSA),’ Hawk wrote. ‘Like Web Services and XML before
it, this foundational Grid work will be an essential part of the
Web and network infrastructure for businesses, as well as for
governments and scientific institutions…'”