News: 0000830549

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Bottomley: Lessons from the GNOME Patent Troll Incident

([Briefs] Sep 3, 2020 18:55 UTC (Thu) (corbet))


James Bottomley got a copy of the patent-suit settlement between the GNOME Foundation and Leigh Rothschild and has [1]posted an analysis . " Although the agreement achieves its aim, to rid all of Open Source of the Rothschild menace, it also contains several clauses which are suboptimal, but which had to be included to get a speedy resolution. In particular, Clause 10 forbids the GNOME foundation or its affiliates from publishing the agreement, which has caused much angst in open source circles about how watertight the agreement actually was. Secondly Clause 11 prohibits GNOME or its affiliates from pursuing any further invalidity challenges to any Rothschild patents leaving Rothschild free to pursue any non open source targets. Fortunately the effect of clause 10 is now mitigated by me publishing the agreement and the effect of clause 11 by the fact that the Open Invention Network is now pursuing IPR invalidity actions against the Rothschild patents. "



[1] https://blog.hansenpartnership.com/lessons-from-the-gnome-patent-troll-incident/

Bottomley: Lessons from the GNOME Patent Troll Incident

Interesting hack to reveal the settlement. If it's actually legit, did Rothschild not see the loophole?

Regarding community defense: isn't there some friendly tech person with a spare billion dollars who can simply declare "I will fund the defense against all patent-troll lawsuits, apply within"? Seems to me that making such a statement, and then backing it up as often as necessary, would exert a massive deterrent effect without actually having to spend a huge amount of money in the end, probably.

Bottomley: Lessons from the GNOME Patent Troll Incident

Interesting hack to reveal the settlement. If it's actually legit, did Rothschild not see the loophole?

Regarding community defense: isn't there some friendly tech person with a spare billion dollars who can simply declare "I will fund the defense against all patent-troll lawsuits, apply within"? Seems to me that making such a statement, and then backing it up as often as necessary, would exert a massive deterrent effect without actually having to spend a huge amount of money in the end, probably.

Bottomley: Lessons from the GNOME Patent Troll Incident

> Interesting hack to reveal the settlement. If it's actually legit, did Rothschild not see the loophole?

It's probably not that they couldn't see the loophole, but that neither a court nor a settlement can bind non-parties to the agreement or decision. What I can't tell is if his reasoning on why he was able to get the document is correct (I haven't read it yet). So if Rothschild tried to put in a clause to try to bind non-parties, then it would likely cause issues with the settlement itself being valid.

Bottomley: Lessons from the GNOME Patent Troll Incident

> Interesting hack to reveal the settlement. If it's actually legit, did Rothschild not see the loophole?

It's probably not that they couldn't see the loophole, but that neither a court nor a settlement can bind non-parties to the agreement or decision. What I can't tell is if his reasoning on why he was able to get the document is correct (I haven't read it yet). So if Rothschild tried to put in a clause to try to bind non-parties, then it would likely cause issues with the settlement itself being valid.

Increased Electricity Consumption Blamed on Linux

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The US Department of Energy claims Linux is partially
responsible for the increased demand for electricity during the past year.
Electricity use was up 2.5% from January to September of 1998 compared with
the same period in 1997. "While some of the increase can be attributed to
higher temperatures over the summer," one Department bureaucrat explained,
"Linux is certainly a contributor to the increased demand for power."

When asked for clarification, the bureaucrat responded, "In the past, most
PCs have been turned off when not in use. Linux users, on the other hand,
usually don't turn off their computers. They leave them on, hoping to
increase their uptime to impress their friends. And since Linux rarely
crashes the entire system, those computers stay on for weeks, months, even
years at a time. With Linux use continuing to grow, we expect demand for
electricity to increase steadily over the next several years."

In response to the news, several utility companies have announced plans to
give away free Linux CDs to paying customers who request them. One anonymous
executive said, "The more people who use Linux, the more power they consume.
The more electricity they use, the more money we make. It's a win-win
combination." Yesterday Linus Torvalds was nominated as a candidate for the
Assocation of American Utility Companies Person of the Year.