More than ever, the future of open source lies not on desktop compters but in the cloud. And in a major reflection of this shifting trend, Dropbox, the cloud-based file syncing company, last week signed on for licensing protection from Open Invention Network (OIN), a company that traditionally has focused on defending against Linux patent trolls in the desktop and server realms is but now looking toward the cloud.

As the Register reports, Dropbox's decision to become OIN's latest licensee will help protect the cloud service from legal challenges as it continues to expand. OIN chief executive Keith Bergelt also suggested in comments on the deal that it could strengthen a possible public offering by Dropbox, as well as pave the way for other companies at its stage of development to pursue similar agreements:

"These are the kinds of companies we are spending more time with—growth companies, strong, venture-backed companies going public or who are in a position where they could go public in the next two to three years."

From the channel perspective, the deal is also significant because it underlines the increasing importance of open source technology to the growing cloud computing world. Traditionally, OIN has provided protection against patent-infringement lawsuits for organizations with investments in Linux kernel code for solutions targeted at PCs and servers. Dropbox, in contrast, relies on other types of open source code and uses it for the cloud.

Dropbox is certainly not alone in this respect. Plenty of other companies are integrating open source platforms including OpenStack, OpenDaylight, GlusterFS and Ceph into products for the cloud. To thrive, they will need to ward off patent trolls who might bring them to court claiming to own parts of the code on which the companies rely.

Of course, patent trolls represent a challenge open source innovators have faced since the 1990s, and it hasn't done much to hinder the growth of open source. There's no reason to think things will change as open source becomes more and more important within the cloud. But partnerships between organizations such as OIN and Dropbox are a metric for measuring just how important commercialized open source code has become to cloud computing.