Open Charge Alliance Joins the Open Invention Network Community
The open charge community seeks to prevent patent aggression in the growing EV industry with OIN membership and working group
Apr 20, 2017, 09:05 ET
AMSTERDAM, April 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Open Charge Alliance, the international nonprofit organization advancing open standards for electric vehicle charging infrastructure, today announced that it is joining the Open Invention Network (OIN). OIN is the largest patent non-aggression community in history and supports freedom of action in Linux as a key element of open source software.
By joining OIN, the Open Charge Alliance is demonstrating its commitment to open source software (OSS) as an enabler of electric vehicle (EV) charging and infrastructure systems. OCA will draw on OIN's wealth of experience in enabling patent non-aggression in key markets to establish an OCA working group whose mission will be to enable patent non-aggression and spur higher levels of innovation across the EV infrastructure community. Through its collaboration with OIN, OCA is expected to reduce risk for developers and companies building and contributing to open standards for EV charging stations, which contributes to interoperability among stations and increasing consumer adoption of EVs.
According to research published by MarketsandMarkets, the EV charging station market is expected to reach $12.61 Billion USD by 2022, at a CAGR of 29.8 percent, between 2016 and 2022. Given the growth trajectory of this market, patent aggression by companies that seek to constrain innovation and force adoption of sub-optimal proprietary solutions is not unusual. Through participation in OIN and the formation of an industry working group, OCA is evidencing its commitment to the critical role of open source software and standards as building blocks upon which the rapid growth of the global EV market will rest.
"We are pleased that the Open Charge Alliance is demonstrating EV infrastructure industry leadership and supporting patent non-aggression in Linux by joining OIN," said Keith Bergelt, CEO of Open Invention Network. "As part of this agreement, OIN and OCA will work to support freedom of action and freedom to operate in electric vehicle charging worldwide."
"By joining the Open Invention Network, we are demonstrating our continued commitment to innovation and supporting it with patent non-aggression in OCPP and Linux," said Onoph Caron, Chairman of the Board of OCA. "This partnership will create and sustain an environment where developers and users of Linux and the OCPP can build and innovate without concern of patent aggression."
The Open Charge Alliance hosts the open charge point protocol (OCPP), considered the de-facto standard for charging infrastructure interoperability among charging equipment manufacturers, software and systems providers; charging network operators and research organizations. The OCA hosts technical, compliance and marketing workgroups that advance the protocol. The development of the OCPP is accelerating adoption of electric vehicles as open standards among charging stations increase ease of both charging and billing.
About the Open Charge Alliance
Open Charge Alliance (OCA) members build and manage a universal open communication standard—OCPP—to enable seamless communication between charging stations and central systems. Its mission is to foster global development, adoption and compliance of communication protocols in the EV charging infrastructure and related standards through collaboration, education, testing and certification. For more information, visit www.openchargealliance.org.
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SOURCE Open Charge Alliance