Open Invention Network (OIN) announced today that Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, Inc. (SMFG) has joined as a community member.
SMFG is one of the largest financial institutions headquartered in Japan, with an established presence across all consumer and corporate banking businesses. Focused on digital innovation through fintech and open innovation, SMFG harnesses open source technology to meet its clients’ financial needs. By joining OIN, SMFG is demonstrating its commitment to patent non-aggression in open source software (OSS), a key component in its banking platforms and applications. “The financial services and fintech industries are increasingly relying on open source technologies, including blockchain technologies such as Hyperledger. Global leaders that recognize the benefits of open source technologies are building robust feature-rich platforms to make them more effective for commercial and consumer clients,” said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. “We are pleased that SMFG has joined our community and committed to patent non-aggression in Linux and adjacent open source technologies.”
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Joins the OIN
SMFG stated, “As a global solutions provider that grows with customers and society through the highest level of trust, SMFG is committed to creating businesses that transcend the boundaries of finance and resolving issues. In order to further promote this effort and quickly deliver high added-value services to our customers and society, SMFG believes that the utilization of open source software will be essential. Also, in promoting OSS utilization, SMFG believes that measures to protect intellectual property rights are important. Through joining the OIN, SMFG hopes to deepen our understanding of the OSS community and contribute to the development of OSS.” Open Invention Network is the largest patent non-aggression community in history and supports freedom of action in Linux as a key element of open source software (OSS). Patent non-aggression in core technologies is a cultural norm within OSS, so that the litmus test for authentic behavior in the OSS community includes OIN membership. Funded by Google, IBM, NEC, Philips, Sony, SUSE and Toyota, OIN has more than 3,200 community members and owns more than 1,300 global patents and applications. The OIN patent license and member cross-licenses are available royalty-free to any party that joins the OIN community.
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