Midea Group joins the Open Invention Network community

Smart appliances are household devices like refrigerators, ovens, washers, dryers, and air conditioners, equipped with technology that allows them to be controlled remotely, often through a smartphone app or voice commands. These appliances offer features like remote monitoring, scheduling, and personalized settings, enhancing convenience and efficiency. According to Grand View Research, the smart appliance market is expected to top $58 billion annually.

A significant enabler of smart appliances is open source software.

Midea is the world’s leading smart home appliances brand and covers a wide range of product categories, including air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, ovens, air fryers, and robot vacuum cleaners. Midea Group has more than 190,000 employees worldwide and revenues of more than $57 billion. As a strong proponent of open source software and a leading global intelligent appliance maker, Midea is demonstrating its commitment to open source as an enabler of advanced, intelligent appliance platforms by joining the Open Invention Network (OIN).

Founded 20 years ago, with financial backing from IBM / Red Hat, Google, NEC, Philips, Sony, SUSE, and Toyota, OIN is the only institution focused on mitigating patent risk in open source software. With more than 4,000 global community members, OIN maintains the world’s largest and oldest patent cross-license, which offers patent protection coverage defined by its Linux System Definition.

“We continuously look for ways to integrate the best technologies into our smart appliances, helping to deliver products that exceed customers’ expectations. Open source helps us achieve our goal of continuous improvement in appliance technology and sustainability,” said Christian Fang, Senior IP Counsel at Midea Group. “We are pleased to join the Open Invention Network and support its role in protecting open source software.”

“Advanced capabilities and intelligence are propelling ongoing innovation within the appliances industry. Open source, and specifically embedded Linux, are key drivers of these capabilities. They power the sensors that enable smart appliances,” said Keith Bergelt, CEO of OIN. “As a global leader in smart home appliances, we are pleased that Midea Group is committed to patent non-aggression in core Linux and adjacent open source technologies.”

As a community, OIN members practice patent non-aggression in core Linux and adjacent open source technologies by cross-licensing Linux System patents to one another. As open source has become pervasive, OIN’s Linux System definition addresses more than 4,500 software packages and components and has evolved to include Linux and adjacent open source technologies produced from projects focused on automotive, fintech, smart appliances, mobile communications, computing, cloud, IoT, and embedded, among many others.

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