Organization (INO), protecting the Linux ecosystem from patent claims, contributing to the protection of the GNOME project from patent troll Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC. At the current conference The director of OIN said that the organization has already assembled a team of lawyers who will search for the facts of earlier use of the technologies described in the patent (Prior art), which will help to invalidate the patent.
OIN cannot use the Linux patent pool to protect GNOME, as Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC only owns the intellectual property, but does not develop and manufacture, i.e. it cannot be sued for infringement of the terms of use of patents in any products. Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC is a classic patent troll, living mostly off lawsuits against small start-ups and companies that don't have the resources for lengthy litigation and are easier to pay compensation. Over the past 6 years, Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC has filed 714 such claims.
According to the director of OIN, the organization initially focused on creating conditions that protect Linux from the hostile behavior of companies engaged in manufacturing activities. Since open projects have become more in demand in all areas, there are fewer and fewer such companies. Therefore, the OIN can now also pay attention to the risks arising from the activity of non-practicing companies, namely patent trolls, who live only off claims and royalties. In the near future, the OIN also intends to announce a new partnership with two large companies with experience in confronting invalid patents and invalidating such patents.
Recall that the GNOME Foundation patent infringement in the Shotwell photo manager. The patent is dated 2008 and describes a technique for wirelessly connecting an image capturing device (phone, webcam) to an image receiving device (computer) and then selectively transmitting images filtered by date, location, and other parameters. According to the plaintiff, to infringe the patent, it is enough to have the function of importing from the camera, the ability to group images according to certain criteria and send images to external sites (for example, to a social network or photo service).
The plaintiff offered to drop the lawsuit in exchange for buying a license to use the patent, but GNOME did not agree to the deal and fight to the end, as the concession would endanger other open source projects that could potentially become victims of said patent troll. To fund the defense of GNOME, the GNOME Patent Troll Defense Fund was created, which is already 109 thousand dollars out of the required 125 thousand.
Source: opennet.ru