Synaptics has issued a cease-and-desist order to developer Lothian, demanding the removal of his open-source Vino driver from GitHub. The company alleges that the project infringes on two of its patents, GB2484736 and GB2485613, which cover image generation and display control device technologies.
The legal dispute began after Lothian contacted a Synaptics engineer for assistance with bugs. Synaptics’ legal department subsequently threatened to bill the developer for the costs associated with documenting his alleged infringement. The company stated it aims to protect its competitive advantage in the market.
Lothian, who utilized Claude AI to assist in reverse-engineering the DisplayLink protocol, has taken the repository offline. However, he disputes the validity of the patents, arguing that the claims regarding general-purpose data networks were not novel at the time of filing.
The developer also contends that Synaptics is a licensee of the Open Invention Network, which should cover the technology in question. Synaptics maintains that its patents are not subject to these terms. Both parties have indicated a potential for further legal escalation.
