Several people have contacted me regarding Cisco's VRRP patent, pointing out that there are existing open source implementations (some even for OpenBSD). However, the existance of these projects (and Cisco's tolerance of them, up to date) does not mean that VRRP can be freely used.
To summarize the previous discussions about this matter, please see
"The IESG/IETF take no position regarding the validity or scope of any
intellectual property right or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology, or the extent
to which any license under such rights might or might not be
available. See the IETF IPR web page at http://www.ietf.org/ipr.html
for additional information."
"In Cisco's assessment, the VRRP proposal does not represent
any significantly different functionality from that available
with HSRP and also implementation of 'draft-ietf-vrrp-spec-06.txt'
would likely infringe on Cisco's patent #5,473,599."
This is just an informal description of their policy, not a license. But it is clear enough that you can't use VRRP freely while asserting patent claims (which might be completely unrelated to VRRP or even firewall technology in general) against Cisco.
While such 'counter-sue' clauses might be common practice for commercial companies, they contradict OpenBSD's goal to provide 'source code that anyone can use for any purpose, with no restrictions'.
VRRP patent issues
Several people have contacted me regarding Cisco's VRRP patent, pointing out that there are existing open source implementations (some even for OpenBSD). However, the existance of these projects (and Cisco's tolerance of them, up to date) does not mean that VRRP can be freely used.
To summarize the previous discussions about this matter, please see
RFC2338: Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2338.html
"The IESG/IETF take no position regarding the validity or scope of any
intellectual property right or other rights that might be claimed to
pertain to the implementation or use of the technology, or the extent
to which any license under such rights might or might not be
available. See the IETF IPR web page at http://www.ietf.org/ipr.html
for additional information."
IETF Page of Intellectual Property Rights Notices
http://www.ietf.org/ietf/IPR//VRRP-CISCO
"In Cisco's assessment, the VRRP proposal does not represent
any significantly different functionality from that available
with HSRP and also implementation of 'draft-ietf-vrrp-spec-06.txt'
would likely infringe on Cisco's patent #5,473,599."
Cisco's policy is summarized by Robert Barr in
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbsd-misc&m=102883972229241&w=2
This is just an informal description of their policy, not a license. But it is clear enough that you can't use VRRP freely while asserting patent claims (which might be completely unrelated to VRRP or even firewall technology in general) against Cisco.
While such 'counter-sue' clauses might be common practice for commercial companies, they contradict OpenBSD's goal to provide 'source code that anyone can use for any purpose, with no restrictions'.
Daniel