Open Invention Network celebrates 20th birthday as an IP industry innovator

The largest patent non-aggression community in history and the forerunner to many of the defensive patent management organizations today, Open Invention Network (OIN) is celebrating its 20th birthday. Since its founding in 2005, OIN has expanded the scope of its patent risk mitigation coverage dramatically while also working to hinder attacks from patent aggressors, including patent assertion entities (PAE). The OIN community has experienced 42% annual growth since 2005 and now includes more than 4,000 participants – from emerging businesses to the largest multinational companies. Additionally, the number of patents and patent applications owned by OIN community members is currently over three million.

The central feature of the OIN community is a patent cross-license that covers core open-source functionality and expands in parallel with the growth of open-source technology. OIN has proactively expanded the scope of the OIN licenses benefit by including more than 4,500 software components and platforms in its Linux System definition, which incorporates artificial intelligence, security, automotive, energy, and other important open-source software technologies as they evolve.

“Over the past 20 years, we have seen explosive growth in open source software used in key technologies – from the enterprise to mobile to cloud and now artificial intelligence. In every industry that develops, distributes, or uses software, open source is prevalent. The collaborative modality that is inherent in open source continues to drive higher levels of innovation than ever before,” said Keith Bergelt, CEO at Open Invention Network. “OIN’s community has embraced the notion of co-opetition and ushered in an emerging cultural norm which enables broad-based participation by ensuring patent risk mitigation in key open source technologies, thereby facilitating open source adoption.”

Separate from its cross-license, OIN also safeguards its community by neutralizing patent threats through defensive activities such as third-party pre-issuance submissions, prior-art collection, invalidity analyses, and ex parte reexaminations. Through facilitating community programs and its own activities, OIN has furthered its mission to thwart patent aggression against organizations that use or develop open source.

“Open source is at the heart of computing and is critical to how technology is shared, co-developed, and advanced. OIN’s 20 years of work have been essential in defending the open source ecosystem from patent aggressors and protecting the ability to work openly,” said Anne Bertucio, Head of Open Source Programs Office, Google.

“Linux and Open Source software were still relatively nascent when IBM co-founded OIN back in 2005. Today, open source is everywhere and proven to be a driver of innovation and growth,” said Frank Sedlarcik, IBM Vice President, Assistant General Counsel, Research and IP. “OIN has been encouraging and protecting open technology investment over the past two decades and stands as an example of intellectual property innovation.”

“20 years ago, when OIN was conceived, Linux and other open-source software projects showed great potential for driving technological advancements rapidly,” said Fumio Imoto, Managing Director of Intellectual Property Management and Rule Making/Standardization Division at NEC. ”Today, the potential has realized, as the success of open source software development and adoption has elevated its importance in the tech landscape. We are proud to have supported the Open Invention Network in its efforts to provide a patent protection zone in open source software.”

“We are proud to have been one of the original co-founders and funding members of the Open Invention Network 20 years ago to protect the Linux System from patent attacks. OIN was a groundbreaking achievement in intellectual property management”, said Jako Eleveld, Head of IP Licensing and Vice-President at Philips. “By enabling businesses of all types and sizes to enjoy the freedom to share innovation at fundamental levels, with significantly reduced patent risk, we have seen unprecedented software innovation globally, better than we ever imagined.”

“Open Invention Network plays a vital role in protecting the open source community from patent aggression. This has led to incredible innovations in areas like telecommunications, cloud computing, and AI,” said Chris Wright, Chief Technology Officer at Red Hat. “Looking forward, we will continue working together with OIN and its community to ensure that open source remains the driving force behind future innovations.”

“The way people work, communicate, and are entertained has completely shifted since OIN was created. Open source software is at the heart of nearly every application and platform in use today,” said Peter Toto, Senior Vice President, Intellectual Property Department at Sony. “Had patent aggression against open source been left unchecked, the business tools and entertainment platforms we have today would be much less robust. We look forward to OIN continuing its activities to protect and advance the open source community.”

“We are ardent supporters of the open-source community. At the formation of OIN, we viewed it to be of the utmost importance that we develop a network that protects open source from patent aggression,” said Andy McDonald, Chief Legal Officer at SUSE. “At SUSE we believe in openness and choice and have all benefited from Open Invention Network’s actions to hinder patent aggression in open source. We believe that this effort will become increasingly consequential as open source grows.”

“Open source software has become powerful by sharing innovations within a large community. Open Invention Network has been instrumental in protecting this community,” said Yosuke Iida, General Manager of the Intellectual Property Division at Toyota.

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.

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