Boss reckons half a dozen institutions will follow suit this year
Barclays Bank is to join the Open Invention Network (OIN), as is Canada-based Toronto-Dominion (TD) Bank Group, in order to resist what Barclays told us are “overt or veiled threats of litigation from patent trolls.” The OIN exists to reduce the threat of licence and patent infringement cases against open-source software. All members sign a cross-licensing agreement giving and receiving access to Linux System patents royalty free, and also get access to a portfolio of IP (Intellectual Property) assets owned by OIN. At the time of writing, there were 3,367 licensees. Barclays has also said it will join the LOT Network, another group formed to protect against patent trolls. LOT Network members agree that if a patent held by them is transferred to a patent assertion entity (PAE), other members automatically receive immunity from infringement of that licence. Although many financial companies are already signed up, OIN CEO Keith Bergelt told us that Barclays and TD-Bank are the beginning of a new wave of traditional banks joining. “I think it will trigger at least a half-dozen banks during 2021 following suit. We’re in advanced discussions with several,” he said. In its statement, Barclays said it was “the first major European headquartered bank to join LOT Network and Open Invention Network Community.” A Barclays spokesperson told us: “Barclays has been subject to overt or veiled threats of litigation from patent trolls. Many of these patent trolls wield vast numbers of poor quality patents that they have acquired, with the express purpose of monetising, from disposals by other large technology and financial services companies.” They added: “The validity or applicability of any individual patent within these portfolios ceases to matter in a typical interaction with a patent troll, because the patent owners can continue asserting ever more patents in litigation, thus making the cost of a fair legal resolution untenably high compared to their demands for settlement.
