Back in October 2019, the GNOME project announced they had been hit by what they called a patent troll with Rothschild Patent Imaging. Now it seems it has been resolved and it's a bin win for open source.

The problem was with the Shotwell image management application, as Rothschild claimed it infringed on their patents. Yesterday, GNOME announced a "walk-away settlement" that not only drops the case against GNOME but both Rothschild Patent Imaging and Leigh Rothschild in the case will now grant a "release and covenant" to any software released under an OSI (Open Source Initiative) approved license which covers the entire Rothschild portfolio of patents. That's a nice win for FOSS developers.

The GNOME Foundation has settled a US lawsuit brought against it by Rothschild Patent Imaging, complete with an undertaking by the patent assertion entity that it will not sue GNOME for IP infringment again.

In a so-called "walk away" settlement, Rothschild Patent Imaging (RPI) and the open-source body are discontinuing a case that began in October last year. RPI sued for alleged IP infringement of one of its patents in GNOME photo-organising tool Shotwell, marking the first time a free software project had been targeted in that way.

The patent suit filed against the GNOME Foundation last September has now been resolved. "In this walk-away settlement, GNOME receives a release and covenant not to be sued for any patent held by Rothschild Patent Imaging. Further, 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." There is no mention of what the foundation had to give — if anything — for this settlement,

In 2019, the GNOME Foundation was sued by Rothschild Patent Imaging (RPI) for violating its "wireless image distribution system and method patent" (US Patent No. 9,936,086)." Rothschild, a Non-Practicing Entity (aka a patent troll), had filed 714 lawsuits over the past six years.

Now, in a surprise move, GNOME, makers of the popular Linux desktop of the same name, won not only a release and covenant not to be sued for any Rothschild patent but a release and covenant to any software that is released under an existing Open Source Initiative (OSI) approved license.

The Gnome Foundation settled the dispute with Rothschild Patent Imaging (RPIL), RPIL agrees not to sue Gnome further for any intellectual property infringement. RPIL also signed to an undertaking to that effect.

In the last week of September 2019, Rothschild Patent Imaging (RPIL) filed a lawsuit against the Gnome Foundation. The case was filed under Title 35 of the United States Code for the infringement of the patent and violation of the intellectual property rights of the RPIL. They claimed that Gnome's Shotwell Photo manager, infringed the patent titled “Wireless Image Distribution System and Method,” being number 086.

Last year, Patent Progress reported on a troll targeting the GNOME Foundation, a major open source coordinating entity. Despite Director Iancu’s public statement claiming that trolls are a myth, this troll was very real. In fact, it was one of the Rothschild NPEs, one of a plethora of companies Leigh Rothschild has used in nearly 900 separate NPE patent lawsuits to date.

Fortunately, however, GNOME was able to retain quality pro bono counsel. And after 10 months, they achieved not just a walk-away settlement where GNOME owes nothing, but actually went further. Neither the Rothschild subsidiary in this litigation, Rothschild Patent Imaging, nor any other Rothschild entity—or any entity purchasing a Rothschild-owned patent—can bring a lawsuit where the lawsuit alleges infringement by any software that is released under an open source license recognized by the Open Source Initiative.

Free-software nonprofit the GNOME Foundation and alleged "patent troll" Rothschild Patent Imaging LLC have reached a deal to end infringement litigation in California federal court, with RPI making a broad promise not to sue over open source software.

RPI released GNOME from infringement allegations and signed a covenant not to sue the organization over any patent in its portfolio, the nonprofit said Wednesday. Additionally, RPI granted a release and covenant to anyone releasing software under a license approved by the Open Source Initiative, at least if that software "forms a material part of the infringement allegation," GNOME said.

The open source GNOME Foundation has won the right to freely use a patent it was being sued over by notorious patent troll, Rothschild Patent Imaging (RPIL) — one of 30+ subsidiaries created by Leigh Rothschild.

The tiny foundation, which supports an open source, Linux-based desktop environment, was hit in September 2019 with a court case by RPIL — which the EFF describes as a “poster child for patent litigation abuse” .

RPIL had claimed that GNOME’s “Shotwell” system was in breach of US Patent No. 9,936,086, which essentially claims the patent rights a smartphone that can receive images that a user can filter.

(The EFF blames the US’s Patent Office for issuing “more stupid software patents to fuel patent trolling” — many companies, if not all, settle with Rothschild for circa $50,000; cheaper than fighting in courts).