On October 2nd Barracuda Networks announced that it had signed a license agreement with Open Invention Networks. Open Invention Networks (OIN) launched in 2005 as an intellectual property company that specializes in acquiring patents and ensuring their availability in order to further the Linux System.

Several companies have now become licensees of OIN in order to help ensure that Linux-Based and open source intellectual properties get the protection they deserve.

It’s important that developers of Linux-based programs and open source intellectual properties work in a legally protected environment and partnerships such as the one being created between Barracuda networks and Open Invention Networks will go a long way towards ensure that new Linux based software continues to be created and that businesses will continue to invest in Linux and Open Source.

Barracuda Networks has been an active member in the open source and free software communities. They’ve also combined their own technology with various open source programs in order to provide easy to use security applications such as their Enterprise Class Spam Filter, Spam Firewall, web filters and load balancers.