The OpenChain Project has a terrific amount of activity around the core project, the work groups and a growing network of conformant organizations and partners. We will be highlighting some of the network activities in the coming months to show how our industry standard is spreading.
Paul McAdam from Source Code Control delivered OpenChain-themed talks at two IT Asset Management events in April and June. The first was the ITAM org conference in Dublin on Monday 8th April with an audience of about 40 people. The second was the ITAM Review Wisdom conference on Wednesday 5th June with an audience of about 30 people.
These events were hosted by ITAM Review, an Online Magazine, Forum and Networking Platform for ITAM Professionals. Reaching out into this market segment is an important aspect of raising awareness of OpenChain before we formalize our ISO standard.
“OpenChain is an important tile in the licensing compliance process”, says Carlo Piana, Founder and Partner at Array, “and we have seen the potential for such a tool even before it was born. Therefore, we enthusiastically embraced it and started advocating its adoption to our clients in many use cases. It is an honor to be among OpenChain’s earliest partners in Europe, and we look forward to a very fruitful cooperation”.
“Carlo Piana and his team at Array have been involved in open source since before it became the backbone of all software development,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “Working with Array will provide us with a strong, highly respected second partner in the Italian market while also providing us with an equally strong voice for pan-European activities. I am delighted with this development and look forward to deepening our relationship over time.”
About Array
Founded in 2009 as a group of independent lawyers (“Array is an array”), Array is reborn in 2014 as a loosely knit law firm composed by professionals with an outstanding profile in the fields of Information Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT), with long standing experience in consultancy as well as in litigation in civil, criminal, administrative and ADR procedures. Array operates on the European market by offering advice to clients ranging from small projects to large communities, from SMBs to Fortune 500 corporations.
Array is a group of IT lawyers, on the cutting edge of legal developments in the Information Technology, Media and Telecommunications field.
Array members have a focus on Free and Open Source Software, which in recent years has become mainstream, the fastest growing trend in the IT sector and one of the most challenging legal fields.
“We are pleased to be a partner in this important project and to contribute our 20 years of experience,” says Dr. Till Jaeger, Partner at JBB Rechtsanwälte. “OpenChain is a valuable support particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises to achieve open source compliance. We are proud to contribute to these efforts.”
“The OpenChain Project is delighted to continue our expansion into the European market with the announcement of our partnership with JBB Rechtsanwälte,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “Till and his team have been a cornerstone in developing open source legal maturity in Europe. Their history speaks for itself and their collaboration with our project will help numerous companies throughout the supply chain access great knowledge and great solutions.”
About JBB Rechtsanwälte
In the national and international market for legal services, JBB Rechtsanwälte is a renowned law firm in the areas of Trademark and Unfair Competition Law, Copyright and Media Law as well as IT Law and Data Protection. For one and a half decades now the practice – currently counting 14 professionals – has been consulting and litigating for corporations and entrepreneurs.
The firm’s expertise is undisputed. In their core practice areas JBB and the firm’s partners have been constantly listed in a prominent position in JUVE’s annual rankings. In 2011 the practice was nominated by JUVE for Law Firm of the Year for Media. In the most recent edition of the JUVE-Handbook for Commercial Law Firms JBB is listed under the Top-30 law firms for Information Technology Law, Competition Law and Media. JBB is accurately described as “firmly established in the market” and “specialized and competent law firm”, “uncomplicated in handling and billing and exemplary collaboration” on who “more and more top clients rely upon”.
DeNA will host an ad hoc OpenChain Japan Work Group meeting between 13:00-15:00 on June 19th at the DeNA Shibuya Hikarie offices. During this meeting Ueda San from Sony will present the recently released supplier education leaflet and we will have an open discussion on use cases, questions and improvements.
Due to seeking active discussion the number of participants will be limited to around 20 persons.
Toyota will host an OpenChain Japan License Sub-Group meeting on the 11th of June. This meeting will cover topics like SPDX-Lite and international collaboration. As with all OpenChain Japan Work Group meetings, the discussion will be held in Japanese, though everyone is always welcome to participate.
日時：2019/06/11(火) 9:00-11:00
場所：トヨタ自動車（飯田橋）
議事：當麻 徹
Agenda
・ガイドライン作成
- 英語化した目次案、各項目に関する記載内容素案 (Slack投稿版)のレビュー
- 次回SPDX Asia Tel-Confへの提案に際しての付議項目（が、あるか？）
The OpenChain Project today announces the release of the Open Source Software License Compliance General Public Guide. This document is an outcome of the OpenChain Japan Work Group, one of the most active and vibrant parts of our project.
The leaflet is intended to be a short, simple and clear guide for distribution to suppliers of all sizes. Our intention is to provide a solid foundation for understanding open source license compliance in an accessible manner.
This document is made available in English and Japanese. We hope to add further translations in the future. As with all OpenChain Project reference material, the guide is made available under CC-0 licensing (effectively public domain, and it may be used, studied, shared and improved in any way you want.
Today the OpenChain Project welcomes CMS to our growing partner program. The addition of this top 10 international law firm marks another significant expansion of service providers supporting the OpenChain eco-system.
“We at CMS in Germany are excited about the opportunity to work with the OpenChain Project in the future,” says Philippe Heinzke, Counsel for Intellectual Property at CMS in Germany. “Certification and quality assurance for open source software is an important issue for our clients and will continue to pose new challenges for companies and institutions in the future. OpenChain helps to deal with open source software in a legally compliant manner, strengthens trust in suppliers and customers and thus contributes to compliance in digital transformation, but also in classic product development processes.”
“Working with CMS in Germany marks another milestone for the OpenChain Project,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “Such partnerships will become increasingly important as OpenChain disseminates further into the automotive, infrastructure and consumer electronics supply chain. Germany is a market of immense importance to our industry standard. We are at the beginning of a journey that will reduce complexity, cost and time-to-market for companies of all sizes in this geography.”
About CMS in Germany:
CMS is one of the leading commercial law firms in Germany. More than 600 lawyers, tax advisers and notaries advise SMEs and major corporations on all aspects of national and international commercial law. CMS Germany has offices in eight major German business locations, as well as in Beijing, Brussels, Hong Kong, Moscow and Shanghai.
Founded in 1999, CMS is a top 10 international law firm, based on the number of lawyers (Am Law 2018 Global 100). With 70+ offices in 40+ countries across the world, employing over 4,500 lawyers, CMS has longstanding expertise both at advising in its local jurisdictions and across borders. CMS acts for a large number of Fortune 500 companies and the FT European 500 and for the majority of the DAX 30.
CMS provides a wide range of expertise across 19 expert practice and sector areas, including Corporate/M&A, Energy, Funds, Lifesciences, TMC, Tax, Banking and Finance, Commercial, Competition & EU, Dispute Resolution, Employment & Pensions, Intellectual Property and Real Estate & Construction.
We are delighted to welcome Cognizant as the latest OpenChain Conformant Organization. This development confirms another Fortune 500 company as OpenChain Specification Conformant and represents a substantial increase in our global presence.
“It is tremendously exciting to welcome another open source user company into the heart of the OpenChain Project,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “Our mission is to support such companies both in pursuing internal excellent and in streamlining open source license compliance across their supply chain. The team at Cognizant is a pleasure to work with and I firmly believe we will accomplish great things in the coming months and years.”
Learn More About Cognizant
Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, transforming clients’ business, operating and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant is ranked 193 on the Fortune 500 and is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com or follow us @Cognizant.
Learn More About OpenChain Conformant Organizations
The OpenChain Project is delighted to announce the second OpenChain Korea Work Group meeting will be held at the Samsung R&D campus on the 12th of June. Great thanks are due to Yoonhwan Jung (Samsung) and Haksung Jang (LG). This builds on the excellent first meeting held on the 23rd of January 2019. If you are interested in joining please let us know on the Korean Work Group mailing list.
The OpenChain Specification 2.0 is now in Simplified Chinese thanks to the hard work of our volunteer community. Special thanks are due to Jerry Tan, Zhang Weilin, Po-Chun Wang, Lucien Lin and Florence Ko.
“The OpenChain Project is global and we are working hard to make our resources available in many languages,” says Shane Coughlan, OpenChain General Manager. “China, as a key market, is a priority for us. The availability of our latest specification in Simplified Chinese is the first step towards making self-certification simple and quick for companies in the region. It joins our Traditional Chinese translation as an example of our commitment to building effective bridges.”
Get this translation and many more guides and documents in the OpenChain Reference Library:
