• Home Blog Defend Open Collaboration: Have Your Say on Proposed US Patent Rules Defend Open Collaboration: Have Your Say on Proposed US Patent Rules Open source and open collaboration communities face ongoing threats from “non-practicing entities” (NPEs, also sometimes called “patent trolls”). • The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has proposednew procedural rule changesthat would benefit NPEs, by making it harder to defend against NPEs who assert weak patents. • We are letting the USPTO know why we think this is bad for developers and users of open source software, and we hope that the broader community will join us in speaking out against these proposed changes. • The deadline for comments is December 2nd, 2025. • Inter Partes Reviews NPEs are legal entities that hold patents without manufacturing or selling products. • In some cases, an NPE may own a patent that is substantively problematic or weak, but was nonetheless issued by the USPTO.
Article Summaries:
- The Linux Foundation urges the open‑source community to oppose proposed U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) rule changes that would curtail inter‑parties review (IPR) procedures. The new rules would require IPR requestors to forfeit the right to challenge a patent’s validity in other forums, deny IPRs if a patent has been upheld elsewhere, and skip IPRs when another proceeding is likely to occur sooner. The changes would make it harder to invalidate weak or “patent‑troll” patents, potentially increasing settlement costs for developers and users. The Foundation calls for public comments by December 2, 2025, citing past success in blocking similar proposals.
Sources: