Among the challenges for companies moving to open source technologies, such as the JBoss application server, are concerns regarding intellectual property rights. By offering industry standard indemnification for the JBoss application server, JBoss Group is making it easier and safer than ever for customers to develop and deploy open source technologies.

"JBoss Group is dedicated to keeping open source a viable, cost-effective alternative, especially now as more and more companies turn to JBoss for their mission-critical applications," said Marc Fleury, founder and president, JBoss Group. "Offering indemnification simply makes sense, and will enable companies to continue using professionally developed and supported open source software with peace of mind."

Under the terms of JBoss Group's Production Support Agreement, JBoss Group will, subject to certain conditions and limitations, defend any threatened or pending legal action alleging the JBoss infringes a valid patent or copyright. Indemnification is being offered as a safeguard for companies developing on open source. JBoss Group is committed to maintaining the integrity of its Professional Open Source model, has a thorough review cycle in place and publishes its source code openly.

"This is the next logical step on our path to make open source safe," said Bob Bickel, vice president of strategy and corporate development, JBoss Group. "We introduced our Production Support Agreement offering full 24X7 support to customers who deploy applications on JBoss in October. We also announced the JBoss Authorized Service Partner Program to create a broader set of solutions and services around JBoss. These all combine to deliver on the vision of making Professional Open Source the safe choice."

Existing JBoss Group Production Support customers will have immediate rights to indemnification, with substantially similar terms added to their contracts at no additional charge. Independent software vendors (ISVs), systems integrators (SIs) and system vendors can receive this indemnification through the Production Support offering, and offer this indemnification to their customers using JBoss Production Support through the JBoss Authorized Service Program (JASP). For more information, visit www.jboss.org.

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