The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision concluding it is false advertising to claim software is “Open Source” when it’s not licensed under an Open Source license. The plaintiff licenses its software as a combination of the Affero General Public License with an additional restriction known as the Commons Clause. The defendants forked the software, renamed it “Open Native Graph Database” (ONgDB), and started distributing their version as AGPLv3-only licensed. They advertised ONgDB as “free and open source,” “100% free and open,” and “100% open source.” The court held that it was improper for the defendants to remove the Commons Clause, and therefore the defendants’ claims in advertising that its ONgDB software was Open Source was false advertising. Read the court’s decision and an article by the Open Source Initiative.
The Free Software Foundation — a nonprofit organization that promotes computer user freedom —appointed Zoë Kooyman as its new Executive Director. She succeeds John Sullivan, who held the position for 12 years. Read More >
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2022 digital conference — sponsored by many OIN members — addressed how an Open Source model of sharing ideas and innovation can help solve global access inequities in healthcare. Read More >
02 |OIN IN THE NEWS
Open Source Zone Grinds Away at Patent Assertion Entities
Approximately 80% of patent threats come from Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) — also known as patent trolls — according to Unified Patents. PAE litigation towards Open Source programs reached an all-time high in 2021 with 721 cases. PAEs are no longer just pursuing big businesses but going after small companies without the resources to fight and it’s cheaper to pay Intellectual Property (IP) blackmail than to go to court. Unified Patents created an Open Source Software Zone (OSS Zone) in 2019 — which OIN, Microsoft & the Linux Foundation sponsor — to help beat back PAEs in Open Source. ZD Net covers the story, and provides examples of some of the OSS Zone successes to date.
This article — Combating Patent Assertion Entities — was written by Krishna Nayan Singhania, Senior Counsel for A.P. - Møller Maersk, with assistance from Biju Nair, LEGALITECH and OIN Licensing Representative for India. It mentions OIN membership as a way to combat Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) and reduce risks of patent litigation threats.
Booking Holdings Inc.was started in the Netherlands in 1996 and bought by Priceline — a U.S.-based, online travel company — in 2005. The Fortune 500 company operates several travel fare aggregators and meta search engines in 40 languages and 200 countries.
DSP Group
OIN member Synaptics has acquired another OIN member, DSP Group, which is a leading global provider of voice and wireless chipset solutions. The combination strengthens Synaptics' industry-leading wireless connectivity portfolio by adding DECT Ultra Low Energy (ULE), which enables a fully-featured intelligent home security solution and together, the new entity anticipates generating an Annual Run Rate Synergies of $30 million.
HARTMANN Group
The HARTMANN GROUP — one of the leading European providers of professional medical and care products and associated services — helps healthcare professionals and patients throughout the world with incontinence management, wound care and infection management.
Linutronix GmbH
Intel has announced its acquisition of Linutronix GmbH. An OIN member for a decade, Linutronix is the architect of PREEMPT_RT (Real Time) and the leading technology provider for industrial Linux. Intel says, “being open is the foundation upon which we can enable choice for our partners and foster trust." Linutronix clearly shares this belief.
A. P. Møller – Mærsk A/S (Maersk)
Fast-evolving supply chain technologies — from tracking chips and sensors to blockchain platforms — continue to drive accuracy and efficiency while lowering costs for businesses and consumers. Integrated logistics companies increasingly rely on Open Source technologies as they modernize, integrate, and build new supply chain capabilities One such company is A. P. Møller – Mærsk A/S (Maersk). The largest container shipping line and vessel operator in the world since 1996, today Maersk operates in 130 countries; employs approximately 95,000 people; deploys a fleet of 700 container vessels; manages 76 global container terminals; owns 58 North American distribution and fulfillment centers, and runs a fleet of 250 trucks in the United States.
TOKAI RIKA
TOKAI RIKA is a major manufacturer and supplier of human interface technologies — many of which are built on Open Source and Artificial Intelligence (AI) — to Toyota, the world’s largest automotive company and an OIN funding member. TOKIA RIKA products include input-sensing security devices, steer-by-steer wire systems, digital keys, mirrors, connectors, switches, seatbelts, shift levers and other electronic car parts.
Truist
Truist was formed by the historic merger of BB&T and SunTrust in December 2019 to become a "Top 10 U.S. Commercial Bank" with $509 billion in assets. Truist is headquartered in Charlotte, NC, and operates 2,781 branches in 15 states and Washington, D.C.
04 |INDUSTRY FOCUS
Open Banking & Financial Services Turns a Corner
“Open Source will catalyze the financial services industry’s biggest evolution to date. This evolution will shift the power in this $25 trillion industry from business executives to developers, not just in fintech companies, but in centuries-old incumbents.” - Future Magazine
To improve customer service, deliver new types of products and services, lower overall costs and remain competitive, Banks and Financial Service firms are leveraging the latest technologies and taking modern approaches to software development. This new strategy for Fintech is leading companies to Open Source and in turn, to join OIN.
5 Solid Reasons for the Shift
1. A New Awareness
Wells Fargo’s patent infringement settlement on patents covering technologies related to depositing checks remotely via mobile phones upset the finance world in 2021. It heightened awareness about the reality of patent threats to Fintech, and the negative impact it can have on a Financial Services business operations and profitability. As a result, the settlement urged Banking and Financial Services decision makers to consider that something similar can happen to their own company, the value of Open Source Software (OSS), and the free protection OIN offers.
2. A Level Playing Field Technology is at the heart of every business. Open Source is the preferred, modern day, and best-of-breed development platform. Banks and Financial Service organizations now need to integrate the success formulas tech enterprises use and are following the footsteps of OIN’s community members and founding companies such as Google, Red Hat / IBM, NEC, Philips, Sony, SUSE & Toyota.
3. Patent Infringement Protection Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) are aggressively pursuing Fintech companies to monetize poor quality patents they have acquired. Banks & Financial Service firms want — and need — the support and protection OIN offers its members.
4. Blockchain Adoption Although blockchain technology is still relatively early in the adoption cycle, it may just be a matter of time until it becomes prevalent. The “Time for Trust” report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) estimates blockchain has the potential to add $1.76 trillion to the global economy and could create approximately 40 million global jobs by 2030. Accepting this trend, OIN Banking & Financial Services companies — including Alibaba & Ant Group — are integrating blockchain into their eCommerce and digital payment platforms. Many OIN members are currently offering Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) to their customers.
5. Demand for Anytime, Anywhere Transactions The number of open banking users worldwide is expected to grow at an average annual rate of nearly 50% between 2020 and 2024. The European market is the largest with $63.8 million open banking users expected by 2024 and individual worldwide open banking users are forecast to reach 132.2 million by 2024, according to Statista. These customers not only demand but expect the ability to have open access to their banking data, and to be able to share that information with other applications as they see fit. Technology innovations and advancements — where Open Source is the business model and norm — is the way to meet those expectations.
Digital Transformation Continues Disrupting Banking & Financial Services, Demanding a Cultural Shift
Blockchain Technology & Its Potential Global Impact
05 |UPCOMING EVENTS
Cloud Native Telco Day will be held May 16th in Spain & brings together service providers and suppliers across the Telcom ecosystem to collaborate with the cloud native community. Cloud Native Security Con takes place the same day and is designed to foster collaboration, discussion and knowledge sharing of Cloud Native Security projects.
OIN is proud to sponsor and have our CEO, Keith Bergelt present “It’s A New Day – Fresh Approaches to Protect Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) from Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs)” to the Legal & Licensing Workshop by the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE). Our CEO, Keith Bergelt will discuss new programs to mitigate risk from PAEs and why these are good for FOSS.
06 |MEET YOUR OIN TEAM
Armijn Hemel
Technical and Compliance Expert; European Licensing Representative
“Open Source is the future,” says Armijn. “The entire software industry will become reliant on Open Source Software (OSS), and we will see a convergence where Open Source Hardware (OSH) platforms will be tailored to run on that software.”
Armijn’s Open Source journey began nearly 30 years ago. His brother was interested in the topic and introduced Armijn to Open Source. Not long after that, Armijn began studying Computer Science at Utrecht University, discovered commercial Unix and wrote his master thesis on NixOS — a Linux distribution based on Nix, an Open Source tool for package management and system configuration— which grew into something much larger than he thought possible. Upon publication, colleagues took the project and ran with it. Today, companies — such as IOHK, a blockchain infrastructure research and engineering company based in China — throughout the world rely on Nix and NixOS for blockchain, as well as other functions.
Upon graduating, Armijn found himself working with Open Source licenses with gpl-violations.org, a German organization that helped companies to ensure compliance with the GNU General Public License (GPL) which has historically been one of the most popular software licenses in the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) domain. Eventually, he started his own business, Tjaldur Software Governance Solutions, helping companies worldwide to become Open Source compliant, including defending themselves against copyright trolls in Germany.
He joined OIN in 2012 as the European Coordinator for Linux Defenders, an OIN community initiative that provides information about defensive Intellectual Property (IP) strategies to help combat patent aggressors, works to limit patent and applications that pose threats to the Open Source community, and provides relevant game-changing prior art whenever possible. Today, Armijn works closely with OIN’s Chief Patent Officer (CPO) developing defensive patent strategies to neutralize threats, helping both OIN members and the greater Open Source community defend themselves from Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), as well as advancing OIN’s mission to maintain an Open Source litigation-free zone. Most recently, the European Commission awarded him a grant to develop Binary Analysis Next Generation (BANG), a framework for processing binary files like firmware.
