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CNCF Sics Developers on Kubernetes Patent Trolls
- Kubernetes patent trolls have entered the frame, with Edge Networking Systems demanding licensing fees at the mere mention of Kubernetes on a CV or social media platform.
- Collecting patents that have no plan to put said software to use, patent trolls instead generate income for themselves by threatening lawsuits against companies generating software using these patents.
- The Linux Foundation, Microsoft, the Open Invention Network and Unified Patents are taking legal action against trolls, seeking to nullify bad patents and find evidence of pre-existing technology, the so-called prior art.
- Now the Cloud Native Computing Foundation has launched a similar patent troll bounty programme, the Cloud Native Heroes Challenge, which offers entrants a reward of $3k for providing evidence as to why Edge Networking's '832-B1' patent should be nullified.
- Should those entrants find pre-existing technology (prior art) evidence showing the application of the patent being invalid, United Patents will use this to challenge the patent in a court of law.
- The initiative is crowd-sourcing prior art to protect the Kubernetes community and opensource projects from patent trolling.
- Patent trolls win by sending popular cease and desist letters to a broad range of companies, many of which may not have the assets to fund litigation. A community able to uniformly reject the claims of a patented troll is an effective strategy against them.
- The community can provide the prior art research, helping to construct claim charts and putting an end to trolling activity.
- In a press conference, Joanna Lee, the CNCF’s VP of Strategic Programs & Legal said 'It’s a two-fold approach. It’s both directly challenging the patents, making the prior art publicly available and then leveraging the power of the community.'
- The call is out for the community to leverage its collective knowledge and records to help overcome 823-B1, and banish any future legal cases that use similar patents.
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