Top Banks Join Linux and Open-Source Patent Protection Group

ZDNet reports: When it comes to defending the intellectual property (IP) rights of Linux and open-source software, global leading banks aren't the first businesses to come to mind. Things have changed. Barclays, the London-based global corporate and investment bank, and the TD Bank Group, with its 26-million global customers, have joined the leading open-source IP defense group, the Open Invention Network (OIN).

For years, the OIN, the largest patent non-aggression consortium, has protected Linux from patent attacks and patent trolls. Recently, it expanded its scope from core Linux programs and adjacent open-source code by expanding its Linux System Definition. In particular, that means patents relating to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) 10 and the Extended File Allocation Table exFAT file system are now protected...

Besides joining the OIN, Barclay is also joining the LOT Network. This is another fast-growing nonprofit group of companies that aims to stop patent trolls in their tracks. It has more than 1,100 member companies and covers over 2 million patent assets.
Why? The "IP and Patentable Innovations Lead" at TD noted that activity from so-called patent assertion entities "continues to trend upward in the banking industry," according to ZDNet. He argues they "have become a tax on business and we're willing to explore any reasonable means to address such risks..."

You assignment for this thread:

[Rick Schumann]

Find a word that starts with the letter 'K' that fits well enough at the end of 'Open Invention Network', so it's acronym will become 'OINK'.

All computer programming is math

[ludux]

And math is not patentable. So why is this even a problem?

Re:

[gweihir]

Because of greed and the corrupt US legal system.

Re: All computer programming is math

[simlox]

Why should application of math be less patentable than application of chemistry? Notice: you can not patent nature, only technical applications having a technical effect.

Re: All computer programming is math

[zoobab]

"technical" is a black hole.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Why should application of math be less patentable than application of chemistry? Notice: you can not patent nature, only technical applications having a technical effect.

Because of the nature of IP protection predates software. There's nothing quite as strange as software.

In the past, a creative work was done to be enjoyed by humans, and given copyright.

A technical work that did things in a novel way that advanced the state of the art was given patent protection.

But software is weird in that it does both th

They should have bought Sun and Java way back

[gweihir]

They have by now probably paid much more to Oracle for Java. Seems some of them have learned something.

Re:

[The Evil Atheist]

The idea of banks owning any infrastructure software+language seems to be a horrific outcome to me. They might actually improve Java substantially and grow its dominance to even greater levels.

Better to let it languish under Oracle.

Re:

[gweihir]

True.

WIPO's chickens coming home to roost

[VeryFluffyBunny]

This whole global situation of IP (AKA "intangible assets") & patent trolls has been set up by WIPO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] because the fat cats don't want to actually do anything for their money anymore. They just want to own (other people's) ideas in perpetuity & charge/sue people who use them. Now they're having to build up defences against other predatory IP companies (AKA "patent trolls") who want to do the exact same thing, except upwards to the richer instead of downwards to the poo