Welcome to INSIDER with the latest Open Source trends, headlines, member news & events. If you have OIN member news, upcoming events, Open Source case studies to share, topics you want covered, or comments about INSIDER, we would love to hear from you!
ISSUE The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a set of proposed rules, nearly all
of which will make it harder to challenge poor-quality patents. If implemented, these rules will make it harder to defend Open Source Software (OSS) against bad patents in the hands
of patent trolls.
IMPACT If these rules — which are plainly inconsistent with the intentions of the legislators that passed the America Invents Act (AIA) — are enacted, patents that slipped through the system and should have never been issued in the first place will:
Be increasingly litigated against developers and users of OSS, including businesses that rely on Open Source
Raise the already high cost of patent litigation and cost hundreds-of-millions of dollars, according to an economic impact study
Impact all Open Source organizations worldwide that have a developer, supplier or customer in the United States
Make business more difficult in the United States and slow global innovation.
Everyone globally is welcome to comment, you do not need to be an American. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts, however brief, by selecting thegreen box titled “Submit a formal comment.” If you want to submit more detailed comments, or have any questions or concerns about what is at stake, please email Jonathan Stroudat Unified Patents.
DEADLINE Comments must be received by June 20th, 2023 11:59 PM EDT (GMT - 4)
WHAT'S NEW?
Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are increasing in popularity & there’s a ton of activity occurring in Artificial Intelligence (AI). Open Source AI is gaining traction. We capture 4 highlights:
Imagine a language model packed into an Augmented Reality (AR) device that fits in the palm of your hand. Meet Monocle. This Open Source device created by Brilliant Lab, clips onto ordinary glasses. Read More >
Now you can turn static drawings into dancing cartoons with Meta’s new tool, Animated Drawings. Read More >
The Sound of AI — a global Open Source project with over 150 contributors — are developing an audio synthesizer that generates sounds from voice instructions likened to ChatGPT for guitar music.Read More >
Open Source continues impacting — and changing — every industry. Here are 4 that may surprise you:
A Brain-Computer Interface? These neurotechnologies are designed to connect brains to digital machinery & scientists say one day might put devices into our heads.Read More >
A team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers are developing SoftZoo — a bio-inspired Open Source platform that allows engineers to test wildlife robot performance in different real-life simulated environments.Read More >
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) had a nuclear fusion breakthrough in December 2022. Since actual nuclear fusion research is expensive and time consuming, researchers use computer simulations to test ideas before experimenting. The use of open source software in this field has enabled the development of tools that make it easier to create and run the complex simulations, contributing to progress like this.Read More >
Open Source makes it to the Agriculture industry with the Open Source Seeds Movement which advocates sharing plant seeds without Intellectual Property (IP) restrictions. Read More >
FROM AROUND THE WORLD
Here are Q1’s fastest-growing Open Source startups in Europe from Runa Capital’s ROSS Index. Read More [+]
The rise of digital transformation across industries is driving growth of the global Open Source Services market which is expected to reach $83.87 billion (USD) by 2030.
Researchers worldwide have developed an accessible Open Source global energy system model — PyPSA-Earth — to accommodate countries without prior energy planning scenarios. Read More [+]
Open Source networking technologies are leading the way for Enterprises, Cloud & Telco. Here are the Top 3 Open Source Networking Trends for 2023. Read More [+]
In a unanimous voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee passed legislation requiring the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to develop a framework for strengthening Open Source Software (OSS) security. Read More [+]
USPTO Proposed Rules Will Strengthen the Power of Patent Trolls, Resulting in Negative Outcomes
Patent trolls — also known as Non-Practicing Entities (NPEs) or Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) — cause more than enough trouble. Nonetheless, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is proposing a controversial set of rules to strengthen the power of patent trolls. Open-source legal experts — including Unified Patents Open Source Zone, The Linux Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) & Open Invention Network (OIN) — are taking a stand against the USPTO proposal and speaking up. Open Source Watch covers the story and includes OIN’s perspective from our CEO, Keith Bergelt.
Open Source sustainability strategy leads Amazon Web Services(AWS) to commit its portfolio to OIN’s cross-license & shares its approach with sdxcentral®. Read More [+]
A division of Jack Dorsey’s financial-technology company Block (SQ), TBD, launches a new Open Source toolkit designed to make it easier for developers to create decentralized Internet applications. Read More [+]
Advocates of Cilium technology, Ikea, The New York Times & Bloomberg use Open Source for cloud-native networking & security. Read More [+]
Here are 4 reasons why Mercedes-Benz — an OIN member — gives back to Open Source communities by not only contributing code, but funding projects, developers & maintainers. Read More [+]
The Linux Foundation's “World of Open Source: 2023 Global Spotlight” anonymous survey is open. Take the survey & receive 25% off any LF training course or certification exam in its catalog.
NEW MEMBERS
Fifty years after its start in a small, prefabricated shed with 4 employees, Nidec Corporation manufactures world-class motors application-based products — “everything that spins and move” — bringing innovation to the world, saving resources & energy, and helping drive social progress. Read More [+]
Its name was inspired by Herman Melville’s classic tale, “Moby Dick.” Its 1st store opened 52 years ago along Pike Place Market. Today, Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse and top global brand that promises “Your favorites. Your way.” It serves over 4 million coffee drinks per day to more than 60 million customers each week from 33,000 stores in 80 countries. Starbucks — an American-based, internationally-inspired coffee innovator & brick-and-mortar retailer — joins our community! Read More [+]
Serving businesses since 1973, Worldline is Europe’s #1 payment processor & merchant acquirer, as well as the world’s 4th largest firm of its kind. Worldline’s technology-led, Open Source innovation drives value creation & enables sustainable economic growth. Read More [+]
Yamaha Corporation has touched the lives throughout the world with the gift of music for 136 years & began when founder, Torakusu Yamaha, repaired a broken reed organ in 1887. Join us in welcoming this international innovator to our community!
Call for Proposals for the 8th annual Open Source in Finance Forum — which will take place November 1st in New York City and is sponsored by FINOS and the Linux Foundation — is open through June 23rd. Early-bird registration ends August 18th.
The Software Freedom Conservancy is hosting the FOSSY (Free and Open Source Yearly) conference (OSS) July 13-16th in Portland, Oregon. Tickets are available!
Biju K. Nair, OIN’s Licensing Representative in India, will present “Defensive Patent Strategy for Open Source Projects and Companies” at COSCUP in Taiwan July 29-30th. The annual conference started in 2006; connects Open Source coders, users & promoters; and has become a major force of Free software movement advocacy in Taiwan, as well as throughout the Asia Pacific region. Read More >
Save the Date for the 11th annual All Things Open 2023 conference October 15-17th in Raleigh, NC.
