It depends on the patent grant in question for the MS-PL license it states:
Which basically means that any contributor who holds a patent on code under this license gives you a grant to use that patent anywhere in the world, for free to do whatever you like (you could even sell the software on for profit and not be in volation of the patent or derive your own work from this code and they still can't sue you).Patent Grant- Subject to the terms of this license, including the license conditions and limitations in section 3, each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license under its licensed patents to make, have made, use, sell, offer for sale, import, and/or otherwise dispose of its contribution in the software or derivative works of the contribution in the software.
Now remember this is the Microsoft lawyers who dreamed up this license and Microsoft have an increasing amount of code going out under this license. It is a very encouraging move as it shows they are willing to deal with patents on terms that are acceptable to the FLOSS world.
Bookmarks