Open Source And Patents: Everything You Need to Know

Open Source licenses and patents give software developers two very different ways to share their work. 

With an Open Source license, the original owner still retains distribution and sharing rights, but anybody can look at and modify a program's code and software. It's important that you understand the difference between patents, copyrights, and Open Source licenses to ensure your work is adequately protected.

What Is the Difference Between a Software Patent and Copyright?

Unlike the holder of an Open Source license, the owner of a patent has exclusive rights over the patented software. No one else can make, use, modify, or sell patented software, and the source code is not available to the public.

Patent rights give the holder control over who uses software and for what purpose. Though software developers can protect their work using both copyrights and patents, copyrights only protect the code itself. Patents, however, protect the program's functionality.

Patents are better than copyrights for software developers because they protect the program regardless of the code and language used. In comparison, copyrights aren't very practical for developers. If you want to release Open Source software while retaining some rights, a copyright only gives you power over someone who steals your work verbatim.

This is because a copyright doesn't protect the specific function of a software program. If a person finds a way to execute the same function using different code or a different language, the original creator of the software won't have any recourse with a copyright alone.

By securing copyrights and patents, software developers have some flexibility for their protections. For example, the software owner can grant users unlimited rights, some rights, or deny rights to use the software. Moreover, if a developer wants to release their work with an Open Source license, they can do so with a patent or copyright to retain some rights. This ensures that other users only access and modify the work under certain conditions.

Patents for software, however, do have their limits. Be mindful of the following before moving forward with a patent:

Patents protect the program's function but not the code.

The filer must define the process that the patent protects in the patent application.

Patents protect software only in terms of strict liability.

Also note that a copyright protects your code from being lifted by another user, but you don't have to officially register to enjoy these protections. However, people still file copyrights to enjoy other benefits, such as retaining official proof of ownership.

What Is an Open Source License?

Distributing software under an Open Source license allows anyone to view, use, and modify the code behind the computer software. Users may modify the source code without permission, but the developer can exclude them from publishing their changes or only permit additions under certain conditions.

An Open Source license may affect some patent protections, but a person can still apply for patent rights to safeguard their software. If you want to retain some patent protections while still sharing your work with others through an Open Source license, consider working with a patent attorney to confirm that you have the protections you need.

Most Open Source licenses also include a reciprocal patent agreement. This agreement outlines things like rights granted in perpetuity, whether recipients can redistribute the work, and the conditions that they must meet when they do distribute the work. It also ensures that the protections a license provides extend to the contributions that people make to a project.

What Is the Gnu Public License?

The Gnu Public License (GPL) is an Open Source license stipulating that any distributions of the licensed software are also protected.

The GPL provides a list of copyright protections to the original software developer. However, the license permits other users to copy and distribute the software and make and publish works based on the software. In turn, users must release their changes under the GPL and make the adjustments in their source code available to other users.

Many companies and popular software programs, such as the Linux operating system, use the GPL. This gives users access to a vast body of knowledge from other developers and incentivizes them to continue improving the software.

If you need help with Open Source licensing and patents, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel only accepts the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

Upgrade to OCPP 2.0.1: The key to advancing the EV charging infrastructure

As the popularity of electric vehicles grows, so does the need for reliable and easily accessible charging infrastructure. Open standards, such as the Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP), are a crucial component in the advancement of EV charging infrastructure and play a crucial role in promoting interoperability between hardware and software providers, enabling diverse players to participate in the market.

OCPP 2.0.1 is the protocol of the future that you can't afford to ignore, with benefits for both charge point operators and EV drivers. In this blog, we'll explore the enhancements in OCPP 2.0.1 and how they can help you stay ahead of the curve in the ever-changing EV charging market.

OCPP 1.6 vs OCPP 2.0.1

Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is a communication standard that ensures interoperability between the electric vehicle charging station and the central backend management system. OCPP 1.6 has been a reliable and widely adopted solution for EV charging networks for some time. However, the emergence of new technologies and the growing demand for advanced monitoring and increased stability have led to the development of OCPP 2.0.1

OCPP 2.0.1 provides advanced smart charging capabilities and control features for utilities, Charge Point Operators (CPO), and EV owners. This version includes several enhancements, such as the support of the ISO 15118 standard for secure communication between the charging point and the electric vehicle. In addition, OCPP 2.0.1 offers a wider range of smart charging functionalities, giving utilities, CPOs, and EVSE owners greater control over the charging process.

While OCPP 1.6 is a well-understood solution that is sufficient for today's use cases, OCPP 2.0.1 is seen as the protocol of the future. As most manufacturers and service providers plan to shift to OCPP 2.0.1 in the coming years, few charge point providers already market charge points based on this protocol.

Being an advanced version of the OCPP protocol, OCPP 2.0.1 provides several improvements and new features over its predecessor, OCPP 1.6, that you need to understand.

Device Model

One of the important improvements coming with OCPP 2.0.1 is the Device Model which is a game-changer for charge point operators, offering a new level of control and monitoring over charging infrastructure.

Predictive maintenance

The Device Model offers charge point operators a configurable and well-structured reporting system for charge point statuses that can be tailored to their specific needs. This is especially beneficial for larger CPOs, who can closely monitor key variables in the charge point to anticipate and prevent potential failures. With this feature, CPOs can receive notifications and promptly address any issues if the charge point's metrics, such as FanSpeed or temperature, exceed a certain limit, ensuring optimal performance.

Enhanced data monitoring

But that's not all! OCPP 2.0.1 has another exciting feature – customisable event notifications. With this feature, the central management system can subscribe to specific variables and receive updates only when there is a change in those variables. This is a vast improvement over OCPP 1.6, which can be resource-intensive since it only supports periodic notifications, and has to process all the data continuously.

It’s important to note that the Device Model’s functionality is highly dependent on manufacturer implementations. While there is a list of standardised variables and components in the appendices of OCPP 2.0.1 manufacturers have the freedom to decide what components they want to publish via the Device Model. For charge point operators, it’s essential to maintain a close collaboration with manufacturers to ensure that charge points will support the monitoring of various essential components such as fans, temperature, signal strength, and more.

Setting and displaying tariffs and costs on charging stations

Another important improvement for CPOs is the ability to set and display tariff and cost information to EV drivers in their own language at the charging stations, making charging more transparent and user-friendly. This feature simplifies the charging process for operators and drives the adoption of electric vehicles.

Configuring charging station display messages

OCPP 2.0.1 enables charge point operators to customise messages displayed on charging stations. These messages can show the applicable tariff before a driver begins charging, the cost incurred during a charging session, and the total cost. It's worth noting that in some countries, this feature will be mandatory to comply with future regulations. Therefore, it's crucial for EV charging stations to incorporate this feature to ensure they meet regulatory requirements.

Displaying tariff and cost information to EV drivers will increase transparency and trust in the charging process. By showing the applicable tariff before a driver starts charging, drivers can make informed decisions and avoid unexpected charges. Moreover, by showing the running cost during a charging transaction and the final total cost, drivers can monitor their expenses and plan accordingly.

Enabling credit card payments at charge points

This not only improves the user experience but also eliminates the need for charge point manufacturers to use credit card terminals to set prices, simplifying the charging process and reducing potential errors. It also simplifies the charging process for operators. Currently, some manufacturers use credit card terminals to set prices, which requires additional hardware and software configurations. Using OCPP 2.0.1, charge point operators can configure tariffs and costs directly from their charge point management system (CPMS).

Making EV charging effortless with ISO 15118 integration

Charging your EV will be so much easier! With OCPP 2.0.1's support for ISO 15118, EV drivers will be able to enjoy seamless and secure charging with Plug & Charge technology.

Plug & Charge

OCPP 2.0.1 plays a crucial role in the success of Plug&Charge technology by supporting ISO 15118 and its communication protocols, making EV charging more accessible and convenient for EV drivers. With the help of OCPP 2.0.1, the charging station and EV can communicate directly, eliminating the need for any external identification or authentication methods, such as RFID cards or charging apps. This allows for seamless automated communication and billing processes, making EV charging effortless and hassle-free. Plug&Charge technology, combined with OCPP 2.0.1, is not only beneficial for EV drivers and homeowners but also for public locations such as workplaces and charging stations, making EV charging more accessible and user-friendly.

Effortless prioritisation of critical loads with Smart Charging

A significant improvement in OCPP 2.0.1 is the possibility for the EV driver to receive more accurate information. By collecting data from the car, such as State of Charge (SOC), charging speed, kWh limit, and pick-up time, Smart Charging can provide more accurate estimates of charging time, when the car will be fully charged and ready to be picked up, eliminating the need for constant app-checking.

OCPP 2.0.1 also facilitates direct Smart Charging inputs from Energy Management Systems (EMS) or Distribution System Operators (DSO) to a charging station. This allows for the prioritisation of critical loads during high grid demand and supports integrated Smart Charging via ISO 15118, enhancing communication and security. With OCPP 2.0.1, EVs can communicate the requested energy amount in kWh, resulting in more grid-friendly, secure, and convenient charging.

Compared to its predecessor, OCPP 1.6, OCPP 2.0.1 has several advantages, including the ability to request a specific amount of power needed by the charging station. OCPP 1.6, on the other hand, only provides the State of Charge, which limits charging event management. With the growing demand for EV charging and the introduction of Vehicle-to-grid communication, which requires bidirectional and specific smart communication, OCPP 2.0.1 is becoming increasingly critical.

The safer protocol for EV charging communication

The OCPP 2.0.1 protocol offers improved security features compared to its predecessor, making it a more secure communication channel between EV charging management systems and charging stations. The protocol uses encryption at the protocol level, eliminating the need for a VPN connection or any third party for secure communication. New security profiles for authentication, secure firmware update, security logging, and security event log notifications provide a higher level of safety as demand for more secure communication channels increases, it's likely that charge points will soon be required to support these added security levels.

Improved data handling: Streamlined transactions and reduced data usage

As the market experiences rapid growth, efficient management of large amounts of data has become increasingly crucial. With the latest update of OCPP 2.0.1, significant improvements have been made in the data section. The transaction handling model has been simplified, resulting in a smoother user experience. Additionally, data compression is now mandatory on the server side, which benefits CPOs with charge points on mobile connections by reducing their need for data plans.

The road ahead: implementation of the OCPP 2.0.1

While the OCPP 2.0.1 protocol offers many benefits for EV charging networks, such as enhanced security, smart charging capabilities, and extensibility, it still has some limitations. For example, the protocol does not yet allow for personalised and visualised interfaces, and charging point operators cannot control the full user experience.

Despite these limitations, and the fact that OCPP 1.6 is still used in many charging systems, most manufacturers and service providers are planning to shift to OCPP 2.0.1 soon, recognising its potential to become the protocol of the future. The adoption of OCPP 2.0.1 may be slow, but its extensibility, enhanced security, and smart charging capabilities make it the better choice for EV charging networks.

Overall, as the EV market continues to grow, open communication standards like OCPP 2.0.1 that promote interoperability and innovation will be essential. While there may be some limitations, the adoption of OCPP 2.0.1 can bring significant benefits to EV charging networks, making it a step in the right direction.

OCPP 1.6 and OCPP 2.0 – which one is better for you?

OCPP is an open protocol for communication between Charge Points and a Central System that quickly became the industry standard. It is a universal solution accommodating any type of charging technique. Since its release in 2015 OCPP 1.6 was downloaded tens of thousands of times and its successor followed in its footsteps. OCPP 2.0 launched in April 2018 was implemented by thousands of users and its popularity is still growing.

Open Charge Point Protocol powers EV charging stations

OCPP stands for Open Charge Point Protocol and it is created by the Open Charge Alliance (OCA) in 2009. Today global consortium that promotes open standards has more than 220 participants from 43 countries on 5 continents. OCPP became the EV industry standard in just 6 years.

The Open Charge Point Protocol allows communication and data exchanges between electric vehicle charging points and central control systems.

As for now, most of the modern  EV chargers are OCPP 1.6 compatible, with the raising amount of station manufacturers delivering hardware ready for OCPP 2.0.1 in order to anticipate future requirements of the e-mobility market and to prevent the money loss caused by stranded assets. That’s one of the reasons why the majority of implementations are still based on OCPP 1.6.

Open Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) 1.6. - what made it revolutionary?

Open Charge Point Protocol OCPP 1.6 was the first OCA protocol to gain world wide recognition. It’s perceived as the all-in-one solution that to this day isn’t lacking anything important despite the huge technological progress that the EV industry made.

The feature launched within OCPP 1.6. that reshaped the perception of EV charging was smart charging. It allowed sending  Charging Profiles to the charging station – basically a foundation of today’s EV charging infrastructure. Central System gains the ability to influence the charging power or current of a specific EV, or energy consumption on an entire Charger / Charge Points network.

Smart Charging has three typical use cases:

load balancing

central smart charging

local smart charging

 

LOAD BALANCING

OCPP allows the management of internal load balancing within the Charge Point that modulates the charging schedule per connector. Every Charger is preconfigured with a fixed limit, mostly the maximum current of the connection thus it allows to get the most from the deal with the power distributor without the risk of an outage. CPO has the option to set up a minChargingRate that may be used to optimize energy distribution between the connectors. Clients wouldn’t be able to charge in an inefficient way and will be automatically redirected to other services based on a fitting balancing strategy.

CENTRAL SMART CHARGING

Central smart charging enables Central System to regulate the charging schedule, per transaction. Schedules allow staying within energy usage limits imposed by any external software on the entire network by controlling each Charger.

LOCAL SMART CHARGING

Charging limits on Chargers are controlled by the Local Controller instead of the Central System. This use case of smart charging describes limiting the amount of energy that can be used by a group of Charge Points (small network like a parking garage), to a given maximum. Another scenario would be receiving information by the Local Controller about the availability of power from a DSO or a local smart grid node.

WHAT WAS INTRODUCED IN OCPP 1.6?

Switch to JSON over WebSocket , reducing data usage and enabling OCPP communication through NAT routers.

Extra statuses, giving the CPO and EV drivers more information about the current status of charging.

Extra values are added, which creates the possibility to send new information to a Central System.

The TriggerMessage message is implemented, introducing the Central System to request information from the Charge Point.

Other functionalities making the implementation of the OCPP clearer, easier and available in steps.

OCPP 1.6 vs OCPP 2.0

The easiest comparison of the two versions would be as follows: OCPP 1.6 is a very good, well-understood solution that is sufficent for today’s usecases.. The OCPP 2.0.1 is the protocol of the future and as such, its adoption is slow.

Open Charge Point Protocol OCPP it’s now available in version 2.0.1 that incorporates improvements for inconveniences found in OCPP 2.0 during Plugfests and in the field. It’s a minor change, not introducing new features or functionalities. Updates have been made in the area of security, ISO 15118, Smart Charging and the extensibility of OCPP.