All, We got the following email from Larry Rosen, Apache's legal counsel.

-- Owen

On Apr 22, 2010, at 7:49 PM, Lawrence Rosen wrote:

To: ASF Board

Several weeks ago I sought clarification from Google about its recent patent 7,650,331 ["System and method for efficient large- scale data processing"] that may be infringed by implementation of the Apache Hadoop and Apache MapReduce projects. I just received word from Google's general counsel that "we have granted a license for Hadoop, terms of which are specified in the CLA."

I am very pleased to reassure the Apache community about Google's continued generosity and commitment to ASF and open source. Will someone here please inform the Apache Hadoop and Apache MapReduce projects that they need not worry about this patent.

Best regards,

/Larry

Lawrence Rosen Rosenlaw & Einschlag, a technology law firm (www.rosenlaw.com) 3001 King Ranch Road, Ukiah, CA 95482 Office: 707-485-1242 Cell: 707-478-8932 Apache Software Foundation, member and counsel (www.apache.org) Open Web Foundation, board member (www.openwebfoundation.org) Stanford University, Instructor in Law Author, Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law (Prentice Hall 2004)