Synaptics sends cease-and-desist order to creator of open-source DisplayLink driver, dares him to publicize its threats
Synaptics sent a cease-and-desist order to Mike Lothian, creator of the open-source Vino driver for DisplayLink hardware, threatening legal action despite the driver being clean-room reverse-engineered.
The dispute began in July 2026 when Lothian contacted Łukasz Spintzyk, a software engineer at Synaptics, to help resolve bugs in his project. Instead, Michal Lukaszek, the company's Strategic Engineering Partnerships Lead, responded that Synaptics was concerned Lothian was implementing the DisplayLink protocol himself, which they claimed violated their patents.
Legal Threats
Synaptics' legal department subsequently sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding Lothian take down his Vino GitHub repository. Despite Lothian's driver being "clean-room reverse-engineered" and partly developed using AI and written in Rust, the company maintains it violates their DisplayLink technology patents.
the company is concerned that Lothian is attempting to implement the DisplayLink protocol itself, which is a violation of its patents
Escalation
The situation has escalated to the point where Synaptics has threatened to sue Lothian and even bill him for the cost of legal documentation. This development highlights the tension between open-source development and proprietary technology patents in the hardware driver space.
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