The QR code was invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara from the Japanese company DENSO WAVE INC. which is part of the Toyota Group.
To help make QR code use ubiquitous, DENSO WAVE made the decision to make the specifications of the QR Code publicly available so that anyone could use it freely.
Although DENSO WAVE would retain the patent rights to the QR Code, DENSO WAVE declared that it would not exercise them. This policy was in place from the very beginning of the code development, honoring the developers' intent that the QR Code could be used by as many people as possible. Thus the QR Code, which could be used at no cost and without worrying about potential problems, grew into a “public code” used by people all over the world.
Counter to that vision, NEOM litigated a series of patents, that claimed control over how people could use QR codes. Large companies are convinced to take a license rather than spend 10x-20x more on lawyers to fight. As a prolific patent troll NEOM hurt not helped the marketplace by putting a chill on QR code use.
The revenue NEOM generated from those litigation campaigns, went to service YA debt and CEO salaries. When the key patents they used in litigation expired, revenue dried up (NEOM never had any significant sales of their platform, nearly all revenue came from litigation), and YA eventually foreclosed on the remaining NEOM assets.
NEOM management never built sustainable shareholder value and now it's over.
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