The Open Invention Network (OIN), dedicated to protecting the Linux ecosystem from patent claims to form a group with IBM, the Linux Foundation and Microsoft to defend open source software from attacks by patent trolls, who have no assets and live only off lawsuits using dubious patents. The created group will support the organization in the field of finding evidence of prior use or invalidation of patents involved in litigation involving Linux and open source software.
On Organization Unified Patents in 2018, 49 cases were initiated by patent trolls, the defendants in which are related to the development of open source software. In total, since 2012, 260 such court cases have been recorded. An example of attacks by patent trolls on open source software is the recent with the GNOME Foundation.
Unified Patents is a group of more than 200 companies that are working together to fight patent trolls and complicate litigation involving patent trolls by making their attacks too costly due to legal costs. Unified Patents does not aim to win the case, but makes it clear to the trolls that they will fight and lag behind the interests of their participants. As a result, litigation with a member of Unified Patents may 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 threaten legal costs of up to $ 2 million). One recent example is in October, a process in which Lyft's lawsuit was dismissed and the troll incurred heavy costs.
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.
Through an initiative by the OIN, IBM, the Linux Foundation and Microsoft, Unified Patents now has an "Open Source Zone" group that will investigate patents and counter patent troll activities in open source areas. To encourage patent review work, Unified Patents has a rewards program for identifying evidence of earlier use of patented technologies. The amount of the reward reaches 10 thousand dollars (for finding the facts of the earlier use of the patent appearing in the case against GNOME, at $2500).
Source: opennet.ru