
Patent case against GNOME resolved - thejosh
https://www.gnome.org/news/2020/05/patent-case-against-gnome-resolved/
======
tssva
The GNOME Foundation established a legal defense fund to fight this suit which
has raised over $150,000. Their plea on the site soliciting donations states;

"GNOME, the free software desktop has been hit by a patent troll. It's the
first time a free software project has been hit by this, and we want to send a
message to all patent trolls out there - we will fight your suit, and we will
have your patent invalidated."

It is disappointing to see the GNOME Foundation settle in this manner rather
than pursue the patent invalidation case fully as implied in their fund
raising site and pretty explicitly in the blog post announcing the fund. I
imagine a significant number of donors will also be disappointed making trying
to raise such funds for any future defense more difficult.

~~~
Yetanfou
While I understand the financial motivation to settle in this way - getting
these bogus patents invalidated takes a lot of lawyer time/money - reading
this piece of fluff does leave a nasty aftertaste, almost as if those
_Rothschild Patent Imaging, and Leigh M. Rothschild_ are anything but the
bottom-feeding pond scum detritus that they really are.

~~~
goodcanadian
Well, you have to read between the lines a lot on these kinds of
announcements, but what I see is a massive win for Gnome:

 _GNOME receives a release and covenant not to be sued for any patent held by
Rothschild Patent Imaging. Further, both Rothschild Patent Imaging and Leigh
Rothschild are granting a release and covenant to any software that is
released under an existing Open Source Initiative approved license (and
subsequent versions thereof), including for the entire Rothschild portfolio of
patents, to the extent such software forms a material part of the infringement
allegation._

~~~
tssva
I think most people can see it is a win for GNOME but it is far short of the
goal the GNOME Foundation proclaimed when it went out raising money.

------
alexforster
I don't understand the negative reactions here.

Gnome got Rothschild to agree to never sue another open-source project again.
That's a huge concession and an outcome that's arguably better than a few
invalidated patents.

~~~
undecisive
I guess that depends how much of the Rothschild portfolio is applicable
against open source software. A few invalidated patents, _plus_ a strong
message that trying to put a FOSS project through the ringer will get your
patent invalidated could be far more powerful than just one promise from one
entity.

Also, there's a question of how widely this legally binding promise is... will
it apply to anyone else who wants to buy these patents?

------
chrismorgan
Initial announcement of the lawsuit:
[https://www.gnome.org/news/2019/09/gnome-foundation-
facing-l...](https://www.gnome.org/news/2019/09/gnome-foundation-facing-
lawsuit-from-rothschild-patent-imaging/)

Discussion on HN at that time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21071699](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21071699)

------
undecisive
There are lots of things I don't understand about this:

\- GNOME raised lots of money to help fight this case [1] - yet the lawyers
supposedly worked on it pro-bono. So is there an implication that this money
has instead gone straight to the patent troll's pockets, or will the GNOME
project get the benefit of that money? Are there associated costs of the
litigation that could easily consume the $150K?

\- They have claimed that no OSI-licence-approved project will be sued. They
have not prevented closed-source projects from getting sued, and presumably
any closed-source project that makes use of open source components will still
be sue-able? For example, a kiosk app that is delivered with a GNOME-based
distribution would be completely unprotected, presuming they distribute this
software?

\- This patent is likely very invalid [2] - so it is very much not in
Rothschild's interest to have this case see the light of court - so how did we
get to this point?

I'm not expecting any official answers here of course, but the whole thing is
exasperating

[1]: [https://secure.givelively.org/donate/gnome-foundation-
inc/gn...](https://secure.givelively.org/donate/gnome-foundation-inc/gnome-
patent-troll-defense-fund)

[2]: [https://www.patentprogress.org/2019/09/26/mythical-troll-
att...](https://www.patentprogress.org/2019/09/26/mythical-troll-attacks-
gnome/)

~~~
jwilk
> So is there an implication that this money has instead gone straight to the
> patent troll's pockets

Neil McGovern said elsewhere¹ that GNOME "have not paid RPI or Leigh
Rothschild for this settlement".

¹ [https://lwn.net/Articles/821137/](https://lwn.net/Articles/821137/)

~~~
undecisive
Hadn't seen that. Good to hear.

------
mapcars
I don't understand who is happy in all this since 10 month of work are lost on
basically nothing?

------
frabert
Nothing says you support open source causes like suing them

------
bzb3
Why pro-bono? Doesn't Red Hat make lots of money?

~~~
fsh
The GNOME Project does not belong to Red Hat. They are just one of many
sponsors.

