Authorization is irksome. For a start, the Brits spell licensing as licencing… and a great number of people mispronounce the word patent as “pay-tunt”, when of course it should be “pah-tent”, whichever side of the pond you are on. But in a world of increasingly virtualized service-based technologies, we need a global economy where licensing, governing authority, patents, copyrights, permits and protections need to be painfully clear and agreed at all times.
Nowhere is this truth more pertinent than in the world of open source software.
Enterprise Open Source Evolution
Open source has evolved from a time when Microsoft considered it to be cancer, to a point where Redmond HQ decided that it “loves Linux” these days. Other switches have occurred as well i.e. we have seen open source database companies change their licensing structures and we have witnessed the erosion of some elements of the free and open source movement as enterprise open source has come to the fore.
Devoted to establishing, codifying and maintaining a fair level of equilibrium in this space is the Linux Foundation, which has now aligned a new collaboration with the Cloud Native Computing Foundation to expand its partnership with Unified Patents to defend open source software against non-practising entities. This enhanced partnership is designed to bring new benefits directly to Linux Foundation and CNCF members, to help defend the open source ecosystem against the growing threat of what the two bodies call “frivolous patent assertions” targeting cloud technologies.
“As cloud native technologies continue to advance, it becomes even more important to guard against patent trolls that do nothing but hinder the open source ecosystem that drives untold innovation, efficiency and productivity,” said Priyanka Sharma, executive director of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. “These enhanced benefits will better defend our community and members as well as ensure continued progress for our ecosystem and the cloud-native industry at large.”
For completeness here, let’s remember that Unified Patents is an abuse-deterrent member-based organization that exists to deter the number of bad patent assertions in specific technology areas. The organization’s chief operating officer Shawn Ambwani suggests that the partnership with the Linux Foundation and CNCF is a significant step forward in the ongoing battle against patent trolls. The ethos here hinges on the need to protect the open source community from those who seek to exploit the system for profit, but (as he puts it) without contributing to innovation.
Crowdsourced Prior Art Searches
“Unified Patents is the ideal partner in this endeavor due to its uniquely community-oriented approach to deterring patent aggression, which includes crowdsourced prior art searches and other tools and strategies designed to benefit and protect the broader ecosystem,” said Joanna Lee, VP of Strategic Programs & Legal at the Linux Foundation and CNCF. “By leveraging the power of community for the benefit of the community, Unified Patents can achieve far greater results than when individual companies act in isolation to defend themselves against non-practising entity aggression.”
Known widely by its acronym NPE, a non-practising entity can be an organization, group, company or individual that owns a patent, effectively “sits” on it and does not work to make or sell products or services; it is regarded therefore as a patent troll. The Linux Foundation has long been a steadfast advocate for the open source community and the fight against patent trolls. The foundation says that, as the risk and volume of “frivolous litigation” against open source projects grows, the need to provide accessible protection from non-practising entities has become crucial.
This initiative builds on previous collaborations with Unified Patents, which have played roles in defending critical open source projects from unjust patent litigation. In 2019, the Linux Foundation and Unified Patents partnered to create an Open Source Zone to defend projects from non-practising entities. Through this latest partnership, members of the Linux Foundation and CNCF – over 1300 companies – will gain access to a suite of benefits based on their membership level to assist in proactive NPE defense, including an option to sponsor specific patroll crowdsourcing prior art contests and benefit from any royalty-free licenses granted in resulting settlements.
Strength In Community
“Open Invention Network, Microsoft and the Linux Foundation co-founded the Unified Patents’ Open Source Zone five years ago. Our goal from the beginning has been to hinder NPE patent attacks on open source software,” said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. “We applaud the Linux Foundation and CNFC working to support additional initiatives that will hamper NPE activities, including this most recent partnership to address the threat of NPEs targeting open source cloud development and use.”
As Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation has said, the strength in this sector stems from the power of the open source ecosystem. It would appear to make sense that protection of community-developed intellectual property should stem from, gravitate around and rest in the community itself.
