The Open Invention Network (OIN) and Unified Patents announced the successful development of the joint Open Source Zone (OS Zone) initiative, created in 2019 following the patent aggression of Rothschild Patent Imaging against the GNOME project. Since then, in addition to the patent that the GNOME developers were accused of violating, OS Zone participants have been able to get 53 more patents invalidated, one way or another aimed at open source software.
Among the open source projects whose interests were successfully protected by having their associated patents invalidated are Apache Cocoon, Apache mod_evasive, Argo, Bluez, Fail2Ban, FreeMesh, LibreMesh, iFolder, LibVLC, Linkerd, and the kernel. Linux, Automotive Linux, Kubernetes, KVM, Magento, Mastodon, Firefox, Mycroft, OpenACH, OpenSwan, QEMU and WebM.
It is reported that in addition to the main sponsors of the work carried out in the OS Zone - Linux Foundation and Microsoft, along with Amazon, Apple, CableLabs, Mercedes-Benz, Meta, ServiceNow, and Twilio, have pledged their support this year to strengthen efforts to invalidate questionable patents used by patent trolls to target companies and organizations that promote open source software.
The OS Zone project was created to protect open source software from attacks by patent trolls who have no assets and live solely by filing lawsuits using dubious patents. The project has established a group dedicated to finding evidence of earlier use of technologies involved in lawsuits involving Linux and open source software. OS Zone also offers rewards to enthusiasts for discovering earlier uses of patented technologies.
The confrontation with patent trolls is complicated by the fact that the troll owns only intellectual property, but does not conduct development and production activities, therefore it is impossible to bring a counterclaim against him related to violation of the terms of use of patents in any products, and it remains only to try to prove the inconsistency of the patent used in patent claim.
Unified Patents is trying to combat patent trolls by making it more difficult to litigate them by making attacks too costly due to legal fees. Unified Patents does not aim to win the case, but makes it clear to trolls that it will fight and protect the interests of its members. As a result, litigation with a Unified Patents participant may turn out to be more expensive for the troll than the royalties that the troll intends to receive (for example, a successful confrontation can last up to 6 months and face legal costs of up to $2 million).
The Open Invention Network (OIN) is an organization dedicated to protecting the ecosystem Linux from patent claims. OIN participants undertake not to assert patent claims and freely permit the use of patented technologies in ecosystem-related projects. LinuxOIN members include over 3800 companies, communities, and organizations that have signed a patent-sharing license agreement. Signatory companies gain access to OIN's patents in exchange for a commitment not to sue for the use of technologies used in the ecosystem. Linux.
The OIN Agreement applies only to components of distributions that fall under the definition of a system Linux ("Linux System"). The list currently includes 3730 packages, including the kernel. Linux, platform Android, KVM, Git, nginx, Apache Hadoop, CMake, PHP, Python, Ruby, Go, Lua, LLVM, OpenJDK, WebKit, KDE, GNOME, QEMU, Firefox, LibreOffice, Qt, systemd, X.Org, Wayland, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc. In addition to non-aggression obligations, a patent pool has been created for additional protection within the OIN, which includes patents that are purchased or donated by participants related to Linux.
Source: opennet.ru
