Marinello reiterated new IP czar Horacio Gutierrez's stance on the TomTom case that "open source is not the focal point of this action." Microsoft last week appointed Gutierrez corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of intellectual property (IP) and licensing, in charge of steering IP policy at the vendor.

"The case against TomTom involves infringement of Microsoft patents by TomTom devices that employ both proprietary and open-source software code," Marinello said. "More specifically, this case is about TomTom’s infringement as it relates to its specific implementation of the Linux kernel. There are many versions of Linux and many implementations of the Linux kernel, and cases such as these are very fact-specific."

In a , foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin urged the community not to panic but said the foundation is making preparations in case the suit means further claims from Microsoft against how people are implementing the Linux kernel.

"Right now the Microsoft claim against TomTom is a private dispute between those two entities concerning GPS mapping software," he wrote. "We do not feel assumptions should be made about the scope or facts of this case and its inclusion, if any, of Linux-related technology. ... For now, we are closely watching the situation and will remain ready to [defend Linux], should the need arise."