Patent Trolls Target Kubernetes Users: CNCF and Linux Foundation Fight Back with Cloud Native Heroes Challenge

SALT LAKE CITY - If you recently posted a job ad on LinkedIn, you might be facing an unexpected issue: a potential lawsuit from Edge Networking Systems LLC.

Edge Networking is known as a patent troll. What does that mean? Well, they buy patents not to use them, but to make money by threatening others who might infringe on those patents.

For example, if you advertise for a Kubernetes engineer, an automated system from Edge might flag it. They'll assume you're using Kubernetes and send you a cease-and-desist letter. This letter claims you're violating their Kubernetes patent and demands a licensing fee.

It’s a tricky situation, and it’s becoming more common in today’s tech landscape. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a patent troll uses patents as legal weapons instead of creating new products or ideas. They often buy these patents cheaply from struggling companies.

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants broad patents for concepts that aren't really new or innovative. This makes it easy for patent trolls to send threatening letters to anyone who might be infringing. These letters often threaten legal action unless you pay a licensing fee, which can range from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Fighting a lawsuit is usually much more expensive than just settling. That’s why patent trolling is a successful business model. In fact, over half of all patent lawsuits are initiated by trolls. Companies using open-source projects, like Kubernetes, are often targeted.

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), the Linux Foundation, and United Patents are pushing back against this trend. At KubeCon North America 2024, CNCF executive director Priyanka Sharma said, “Patent trolls are not contributors or even adopters in our ecosystem. They prey on cloud-native users by abusing the legal system. We’re here to tell the world that these trolls don’t stand a chance because we’re uniting the ecosystem to deter them.”

CNCF CTO Chris Aniszczyk added, “The reason trolls can make money is that many companies find it too expensive to fight back, so they pay a settlement fee to avoid the even higher cost of litigation. But when a group of companies bands together, it changes the cost structure of fighting back.”

Jim Zemlin, the executive director of the Linux Foundation, stated, “We don’t negotiate with trolls. Instead, we work with United Patents to challenge these patents at the PTO. We strive to invalidate them by collaborating with developers who have prior art. We bring this to the USPTO’s attention and aim to kill these patents. No negotiation, no settlement. We destroy the very asset that makes patent trolls’ business work.”

It’s important for your company’s legal team to get involved in this fight against patent trolls. But developers can help too. CNCF has launched the Cloud Native Heroes Challenge, a bounty program for cloud-native developers and technologists. You can earn rewards and recognition.

They’re asking you to find evidence of prior art—technology that existed before the patent was filed. This could be open-source documentation, published standards, product manuals, articles, blogs, or any publicly available information.

All participants who submit qualifying entries will receive a free "Cloud Native Hero" t-shirt at any future KubeCon+CloudNativeCon. The winner will also get a $3,000 cash prize.

In this first contest, CNCF is specifically looking for information that can invalidate Claim 1 from US Patent US-11695823-B1. This is the main patent that Edge Networking Systems is asserting against Kubernetes users. It’s known for being overly broad, describing a network architecture that enables secure and flexible programmability between user devices and networks, along with full lifecycle management of services and applications. This description could apply to almost any modern cloud system.

If you can find prior art that describes such a system before June 13, 2013, you could be the winner. Some materials have already been identified and are listed in the "known references" section of the contest information page, and those don’t qualify.

If you care about keeping open-source software easy and affordable to use, or if you believe trolls shouldn’t exploit companies that create or use these programs, your participation is valuable.