Businesses using open-source projects like Kubernetes are being targeted more often by patent trolls. Now the open source community is launching a counter-offensive and looking for volunteers.
They're asking you to find evidence of preexisting technology -- referred to by patent lawyers as "prior art" -- that can kill off bad patents. This could be open-source documentation (including release notes), published standards or specifications, product manuals, articles, blogs, books, or any publicly available information.
They use this info to essentially undercut and invalidate the patent trolls' filing, killing their ability to file suit on that patent again.
There's also a contest with a $3000 prize for anyone who can help kill a current one on their plate.
Another way to help: If you have an idea that someone could possibly patent, no matter how stupid you think it is, you can publish a defensive technical disclosure on tdcommons for free https://www.tdcommons.org/
That’s not the submission deadline, that’s the priority date for this particular patent, basically when it was first filed. If people can find other published information describing what the patent covers that predates the filing it would help invalidate the patent.