Banks joining OIN can lock out patent trolls by inventing improvements and publishing them as prior art. Enabled publications cost far less than patents.
While some banks may need invention to prevent banking errors, other banks need to solve a different problem: patent infringement. Barclays Bank, TD Bank, and others have joined the Open Invention Network (OIN) to resist litigation threats from patent trolls.
For many years, OIN has provided a way to reduce the threat of license and patent infringement cases against open-source software. ipCapital Group has worked to help OIN over the years, and we believe in its mission as well as admire Keith Bergelt, its CEO. In his tenure, he has been able to help it grow to 3,367 licensees.
This is undoubtedly an area where Invent Anything principles can be a strategic advantage. Specifically, the banks should invent all sorts of improvement ideas and then publish them in a venue like IP.com to generate prior art. In our earlier work we demonstrated that OIN could systematically invent and then publish those inventions to create prior art that would stop trolls from patenting these improvements in the future.
A quick search of the patent databases shows over a million patents and applications related to banking and finance. This poses a tremendous challenge to the finance and banking industry, so solutions like OIN offers will be desperately needed.
Additionally, new technologies threaten to radically change the banking industry. Looking ahead, Quantum Computing, Blockchain, Smart Contracts, and Machine Learning, will have major ramifications on the safety, security, and functionality of modern financial systems. Banks and financial firms, and the IP networks that protect them, should begin inventing and publishing in these areas immediately to maintain Freedom to Operate. “Enabled Publications” can provide protection from trolls without the large investment required to secure a patent portfolio.
Could enabled publications protect your freedom to operate? ipCG helps companies invent and publish defensively through our IP disclosure services, or talk to an ipCG strategist.
Here are just a few ideas to get started:
Banks and OIN should protect the future by inventing anything and everything that will impact their industry in the coming years. By brainstorming these ideas now, and inexpensively publishing these ideas to create prior art, they can protect the future without breaking the bank (pun intended). Today, it is even possible to build an AI machine to invent and publish without much human intervention. Let’s just hope the legitimate institutions catch on before the patent trolls do.
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Written by
John Cronin