It seems these patents were mainly 3D graphics-related: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/08/microsoft_sgi_patents_oin/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/

It seems these patents were mainly 3D graphics-related: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/08/microsoft_sgi_patents_oin/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/09/08/microsoft_sgi_patent... So these patents probably don't apply to the Linux kernel, but may apply to other open-source software.