14 DAY TRIAL // The legal dispute between GNOME and Rothschild Patent Imaging in which the open-source software organization was accused of patent violation has finally been settled.
GNOME said in a press release, also embedded below, that the walk-away settlement includes a release and covenant not to be sued for any patents that Rothschild Patent Imaging owns.
“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,” GNOME says.
The legal fight against a patent troll
While no specifics have been provided on the terms of deal, GNOME originally accused Rothschild Patent Imaging of asking for “a high five amount,” calling the company a “patent troll.”
However, GNOME explained in October 2019, when the organization also decided to countersue RPI, that paying for a settle “would be wrong.”
“Agreeing to this would leave this patent live, and allow this to be used as a weapon against countless others. We will stand firm against this baseless attack, not just for GNOME and Shotwell, but for all free and open source software projects,’ GNOME said.
“We want to send a message to all software patent trolls out there — we will fight your suit, we will win, and we will have your patent invalidated.”
The lawsuit targeted the Shotwell image management application, and RPI said the software violated one of its patents. GNOME, however, claimed this wasn’t a valid patent, fighting the claim in court in an attempt to prevent other organizations from being accused of patent violation in the future.
GNOME was represented in court pro-bono by Shearman & Sterling LLP.