Barclays has deepened its commitment to the combatting patent trolls, becoming the first major European based bank to join LOT Network and Open Invention Network Community to oppose the abuse of intellectual property rights.
The climate for fraud has elevated as global economies continue to battle the coronavirus pandemic and consumer habits continue to evolve.
Furthermore, as the world has become an increasingly technology-driven, organisations in all sectors using technology, including open-source software, are potentially more vulnerable to breaches by patent trolls
Lee Braine, Managing Director, Chief Technology Office at Barclays, said: “Spurious claims from Patent Assertion Entities divert resources and investment away from true innovation and collaboration. We also recognise that a modern approach to technology development and innovation requires a level playing field around use of open source software.
“With membership of LOT and OIN, we are pleased to contribute to and extend the growing global community working together to reduce the PAE threat and lower barriers to use of open source technologies.”
Patent trolls are organisations that derive revenue primarily by threatening to litigate unless companies pay to license their patents. The time, resource and expense to litigate against these claims often results in companies agreeing to settle, regardless of the merits of the claims or the value of the underlying intellectual property.
Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network, also stated: “We are pleased that Barclays, a global leader in finance and banking, has joined our community and committed to patent non-aggression in open-source software. Risk is evolving as Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs) are becoming increasingly aggressive, and target financial services and cloud computing platforms.
“We will continue to grow our patent non-aggression community with innovators like Barclays and are also committed to balancing our efforts by investing in other means to mitigate PAE risk to open source software.”
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