Big Banks Join Patent Protection Consortiums.

Barclays and the TD Bank Group have joined the Open Invention Network, an open-source intellectual property defense group. OIN is the largest consortium devoted to protecting members from patent trolls, with 3300 members. The number of patent infringement suits filed by trolls has continued to grow over the past several years, driven by changes in legal precedent and the economic effects of the global pandemic. Barclays is also joining the LOT Network, another group of more than 1,100 member companies that aims to counter patent assertion entities. LOT covers over 2 million patent assets.  Banks are particularly interested in protecting Linux programs and adjacent open-source code. OIN’s CEO notes that the financial services and financial technology industries are increasingly relying on open source technologies.