EFF: Mesh Networking, Good. Overbroad Patents, Bad. - mesh

21 Jun 2013

another legal aspect of the sudo-mesh project is patent busting prior art research. ...

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/06/mesh-networking-good-overbroad-patent…
...
  JUNE 21, 2013 | BY JULIE SAMUELS
 Mesh Networking, Good. Overbroad Patents, Bad. Help Us Protect Mesh Networking.
 Earlier this year, we announced that along with the Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard’s Berkman
Center for Internet and Society, we were challenging six patent applications that, if
granted, could threaten the development of 3D printing technology. We asked you—the
community—for help, and your input was invaluable. We're still waiting to hear from
the Patent Office on those applications, but our work is not done. We need your help
again, this time to challenge dangerous patent applications that threaten mesh networking
technology.

 Mesh networking allows users to form their own networks without a centralized
infrastructure, making them inherently resistant to censorship, surveillance, and
disruption. Given recent revelations showing widespread surveillance of the phone calls
and online activities of innocent Americans and others around the globe, the development
of mesh networks more important than ever. Governments and commercial actors have taken
advantage of intermediaries as “weak links” in order to censor, surveil, and disrupt
communications and social movements. Already in the United States, cell towers have been
deactivated in response to planned protest, while activists in countries such as Egypt,
Libya, and Syria have suffered massive blackouts that shut down all access from within the
country to the wider Internet. Mesh networking technology can help activists fight back.

 Wireless Mesh Networks

 For more than a decade the open-source community has been developing networks that use
multi-hop connectivity to bypass the current ISP-dominated model of Internet access. These
Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have tremendous potential for enabling the free flow of
information without exposure to censorship and monitoring. Because they lack a central
access point, mesh networks are also harder to take down, as the removal of one node won’t
terminate the entire network. And WMNs, by not relying on infrastructure provided by ISPs,
can provide connectivity in areas where that infrastructure is inaccessible, damaged, or
prohibitively expensive.

 The open source community has developed innovative tools and applications of mesh
networking technology including the B.A.T.M.A.N. routing protocol developed by Freifunk, a
system for internet access in remote areas of Afghanistan and Kenya (FabFi), and community
controlled telephone systems in Nigeria, Columbia, Puerto Rico, South Africa, East Timor,
and Brazil (VillageTelco).  Harvard Law Professor Jonathan Zittrain and former FCC
chairman Julius Genachowski recently advocated for the use of mesh networks to provide
phone access during times of crisis when mobile networks are overloaded.

 The Problem 

 Wireless Mesh Networking is still in its nascent stages, and the innovations and
experimentation of the open source community are playing a vital role in advancing the
technology. However, there has also been significant proprietary and military interest in
the technology, and companies are seeking patents in many areas of WMN already explored by
the open source community. We unfortunately know what can happen when overbroad patents
get granted—the rise of patent trolls, lawsuits that can threaten growing businesses, and
threats that target entire areas of technology. We don't want to see that happen to
mesh networking.

 This is where you come in!

 We have identified several patent applications that we believe particularly threaten the
free development of mesh networking technology. There is a danger that these patents, if
granted, will lock up the basic mesh network infrastructure and restrict advancement of
and access to the technology. 

 We have been using the Patent Office’s new Preissuance Submissions procedure, which gives
third parties an opportunity to tell patent examiners when they think a patent application
shouldn't be granted. The procedure requires those third parties to submit
publications predating the application that prove the ideas in the patent were not novel.

 Which is why we need your help. We are again partnering with Ask Patents so you can help
us identify the best prior art to reign in these applications. While prior art for issued
patents must date back many years, these are recently filed applications for which
relatively recent publications may be helpful. Look at each “Request for Prior Art” we
post to learn the exact priority date. 

 Working together we can protect the mesh networking community from overbroad,
illegitimate patents that threaten to stifle innovation and access to technologies that
preserve personal freedoms.  

 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ENHANCING WIRELESS MESH NETWORK COMMUNICATIONS

 ADAPTING EXTENSIBLE AUTHENTICATION PROTOCOL FOR LAYER 3 MESH NETWORKS

 MESH NETWORK GATEWAY AND SECURITY SYSTEM 