Remember the patent lawsuit against Gnome photo management software shotwell in 2019 With the unremitting efforts of an enterprising open source lawyer, [ Rothschild '086 ] for attack( https://patents.google.com/patent/US9936086B2/en ) The revocation of patents means that patent hooligans can no longer use it to attack the open source community**
In 2019, Rothschild patent imaging LLC (RPI) filed a lawsuit against the Gnome foundation, accusing the photo management software shotwell of violating US Patent No. 9936086 wireless image distribution system and method.
After reviewing the Gnome lawsuit, lawyer McCoy Smith, who has served as a patent examiner in the United States trademark and Patent Office (USPTO) for nearly 30 years and now has a patent law firm, believes that the patent is incorrect and should not be approved by the patent office.
In October 2020, lawyer McCoy submitted an application for examination of patent No. 9936086, indicating that the technology described in the patent is not a new development. USPTO examined the patent, agreed with McCoy and declared the patent invalid. It is worth noting that after friction with gnome, the patent was used to attack more than 20 other companies.
OpenSource. Org believes that the decision of the U.S. Patent Office may give patent hooligans reason to avoid open source projects, because the funding and fierce resistance provided by the open source community in the Gnome case are impressive.
This prompted more than 4000 members of the free and open source software (FOSS) community to unite to defend the Gnome foundation and raised more than $150000 to defend false statements. Finally, the Gnome foundation reached a settlement with RPI and obtained a comprehensive free license for all open source software patents, ending gnome's challenge to patent validity.