GNOME fires back at patent troll

A notorious "patent troll" — an acquirer of vague or trivial patents whose only real business is to shake down companies that offer implicated products — recently targeted GNOME, developers of a popular desktop environment for the Linux family of operating systems. GNOME fired back yesterday, asking a judge to dismiss the troll's lawsuit.

First: a motion to dismiss the case outright. We dont believe that this is a valid patent, or that software can or should be able to be patented in this way. We want to make sure that this patent isnt used against anyone else, ever.

Second: our answer to the claim. We dont believe that there is a case GNOME needs to answer to. We want to show that the use of Shotwell, and free software in general, isnt affected by this patent.

Third: our counterclaim. We want to make sure that this isnt just dropped when Rothschild realizes were going to fight this.

We want to send a message to all software patent trolls out there we will fight your suit, we will win, and we will have your patent invalidated.