earthcreed

English centric, although other languages may have collapsed gratis and liber into a single word.

You do understand this is a move to protect Hollywood, Right? It is for the very reasons you cited.

The news story is just the PR release restated. There is no reporting going on. They even repeated the arguably false statement that this is "the first of its kind", leaving off the one part of the statement that might make it true "by a university".

That was the point of my comment, and I included the link so you could look at both.

You can also read the actual press release from UCSB, instead of reuters' regurgitation of it.

https://filamentpatent.ucsb.edu/

You don't need a patent lawyer, just read 35 U.S. Code § 271. " . . . whoever without authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within the United States or imports into the United States any patented invention during the term of the the patent therefor, infringes the patents.

Amazon, Walmart, etc. aren't likely the ultimate targets of the suit. The suits are designed to bring in the producers under the indemnity portion of their contract with the retailer. Its a jurisdictional hook and way to effectively multiply the amount of pressure on the actual infringer, by threatening to cut off their access to the retailer (which could be accomplished in the ITC) and leverage possible contractual damages they face from the retailer. The ultimate goal is to pressure Everlight, Eaton, and whoever else is making the light bulbs to pay for a license, and using Amazon and Walmart to force them to do so.