Unicorn Patent Portfolio Analysis - Github

Github is a web-based Git repository holding service or “version control system,” which allows software developers to organize their many revisions of software code and store their modifications in a central repository. Github allows developers to easily collaborate, make changes, and upload the newest revision. It offers all of the functionality of the existing open-source platform Git as well as adding its own features, such as a Web-based graphical interface, bug tracking, task management, and wikis for every project.

In spite of their many software innovations, Github has been staunchly opposed to acquiring patents, as they currently have 0 published patents and applications. Github has joined the LOT network, an open patent-licensing program designed to reduce patent litigation. Their belief is that software patents incentivize “patent trolls” to threaten valid software projects to the point that developers either shut their work down or pay the patent troll to move along. According to them, trolls usually target the most successful and innovative projects, which would include many of the projects on Github.

While Github has become an industry standard for software developers and businesses to host their code, there are some competitors. The company Atlassian owns two of Github’s more notable competitors, BitBucket and JIRA. While they are essentially similar systems for most developers, the two services have very different billing structures – Github charges per private repository, while BitBucket charges per private collaborator. Surprisingly, Atlassian only owns one patent, “Efficient hosting of virtualized containers using read-only operating systems,” a patent with regard to virtualized machines that does not relate to this industry. A third competitor is Google’s Cloud Source Repositories, a service in early stages of development that is not on the market yet. As a result, it is not completely clear whether they own intellectual property related to software repositories.

Although creating an intellectual property portfolio would be a highly necessary business decision in almost any other area of business, in an industry where open-source technologies are highly prioritized, it would not be the best decision for Github to create an IP portfolio. Github’s commitment to developing a network of like-minded technology companies who have dedicated themselves to keeping technology open in the hopes of reducing the outsized effects of patent trolls on the litigation system appears to be the best strategic decision for them.