Microsoft and Melco Holdings Inc., have entered into an agreement that’ll provide Melco Group’s customers with patent coverage for their use of industry-leading technologies running Linux and other related open source software. Specifically, the patent covenants apply to Buffalo-branded Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices, which run Linux, and Buffalo-branded routers, which also run Linux. Although the contents of the agreement have not been disclosed, the parties indicate that the only financial consideration in this agreement is royalties paid by Melco Group to Microsoft. “While we plan to increasingly adopt Windows Storage Server for our NAS business, we also wanted to ensure that our open source and Linux-embedded devices had the appropriate IP protections. By collaborating with Microsoft on a practical business solution, we’re able to provide our customers with the appropriate IP coverage, while also maintaining full compliance with our obligations under the GPLv2,” said Hajime Nakai.