7 ms·

Patents and innovation

161 points by fogus 16y ago

bluelu 16y ago
It would be great if they could create a patent pool where every company could join (e.g. paying a small yearly fee), so whenever somebody sues you, you would have the right to use all the patents in that patent pool to sue the other company back.
- extension 16y ago
  The problem is that each patent can only do a limited amount of damage to each company its used against, so members with larger portfolios would be stretching their defenses thin to cover the weaker companies. Still, I might like to see a strictly defensive patent pool between equally powerful players.
woan 16y ago
If this isn't a nearly $1b testament for real patent reform (not what is going through Congress now), I don't know what is...
acconrad 16y ago
Google is becoming more hypocritical by the day. First the Verizon deal. Next it was closing Android, now it is bidding on Nortel's patents as a protection power-play (and I'm sure there are countless others, but those are the first I'm reminded of). This is a "sorry we're not sorry" blog post...I never understand this. Stop pretending to be a small company in big company's clothes: own up to being a part of the system you swore not to be a part of, and move on. Search works for me, so I'm still happy.
- BarkMore 16y ago
  What's hypocritical about building a defensive patent portfolio?
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- Kylekramer 16y ago
  Google can be ideologically pure about patents being evil and subsequently get sued to oblivion, or they can acknowledged the current reality and fight it while staying safe themselves. I'd know one I would pick. For example, I disagree with marijuana laws, but I am not about to light up in front of a cop.
  - dexen 16y ago
    And who's there to stop Google from abusing the patent pool in 4 years from now? Yes, they have been pretty considerate business up to now. But future is not merely a direct projection of past. A portfolio of patents is as much an obligation as an asset. You cannot arbitrarily enforce patents only against certain competitors, lest you risk the patent in question being shot down in arbitration or court case.
    - nolok 16y ago
      And who's there to stop whoever buy these patents from abusing the patent pool in 4 years from now? In that situation, I would much rather have google own them on the risk that they might do something evil with it (but probably not if we believe their history), than any of the other companies who already proved they would.
    - bad_user 16y ago
      A portfolio of patents becomes a liability sooner or later, no matter who owns it. The only one who can stop that is you -- by voting, lobbying or donating money to the EFF or similar organizations that are fighting against software patents. If enough people did this, we wouldn't have this conversation -- but the truth is, most people accepted the status-quo and/or have other priorities, so after a little bit of hand-waving, life goes back to normal and it's business as usual. And companies have the obligation to defend themselves -- they can't afford to just bitch-and-moan about this issue. And even companies acting in good-faith (if such a thing exists for companies) -- will choose the path of least resistance (i.e. building a patents portfolio). Otherwise, to make a (bad) analogy, it would be like going to war with "make love" signs. Don't hate the player, hate the game.
- acconrad 16y ago
  I had a funny feeling this would be downvoted.
  - ascendant 16y ago
    It's the never ending battle between ideology vs pragmatism. In a perfect world, I'm sure they'd love to stick to their original creed of "Don't be evil", but pragmatism dictates that occasionally they have to bend their own rules from time to time to make sure food gets on the table for their thousands of employees. I'm not saying you're right or wrong, but I get the sense that most HNers fall into the "pragmatism" camp. In this particular case, my bat-sensor isn't really detecting anything malevolent afoot. They and their partners have been getting hammered on all sides by patent lawsuits and Google has more than enough cash to come out swinging, and this is a major show of muscle to let people know they're not going to get pushed around like some two bit small company.
    - danssig 16y ago
      I'm pragmatic as well. What I find frustrating about this blatant Google fanboy-ism is that it is hypocritical on its face: any normal company thing they do gets trumpeted as "don't do evil! Weeeeee!" and every evil thing is defended with pragmatism. They're just a big public tech company. They're no more good/evil than Apple, Microsoft or anyone else and it's really frustrating watching otherwise intelligent adults behaving as though they were somehow different.
- bad_user 16y ago
  The first step to enlightenment is recognizing instances where you might be wrong ;-) I think we are too little and insignificant to hypothesize about the effects of net-neutrality (or the lack of it), and what will happen with the Internet ecosystem going forward; but personally I think net-neutrality is bad news for consumers, which would be ironic given how it was pushed forward. If anything, I blame Google for sticking their nose into this business, but I don't blame them. About "closing Android" -- their behavior has been consistent. The very first version of Android has been released in binary-form only. Android was never more open than it currently is, and as far as openness goes, it's not a black&white issue. Bidding on Nortel's patents makes sense, and I'm actually glad they did it, as companies like Oracle, Microsoft and Apple have the power to kill Android by means of their fat patents portfolio. And personally I care much, much more about a healthy smartphones ecosystem that has plenty of competition, rather than about ideological issues that may or may not have value. No, they aren't a small company anymore. Small companies in the same situation either sell-out or die.
  - danssig 16y ago
    If you're a fan boy then you're almost certainly neither enlightened nor correct.
- danssig 16y ago
  Disgusting that a post questioning Google gets voted down like this. Also you forgot where they made a big stink about China, claimed they were pulling out and.... didn't.
dochtman 16y ago
I hope they will license the patents freely to all open source projects, or something like that, to demonstrate the unevilness.
- ssp 16y ago
  Indeed. They could consider doing something similar to Red Hat: http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html
- jwr 16y ago
  Let's rephrase that: their unevilness will be demonstrated by their licensing of the patents freely to all open source projects. Or not.
- zmmmmm 16y ago
  There would be some irony in that since it would allow Oracle to use them to defend against any counter strike Google makes in the Java / Android patent suit.
  - jbri 16y ago
    Note that such "free licensing" for patents generally includes the stipulation that you waive your license if you engage in any patent suit against the patent-holding company - for example, the Red Hat promise includes the words: "Our Promise does not extend to any party who institutes patent litigation against Red Hat..." The whole point is to free up your patent collection so anyone can use it, without devaluing it as ammunition to defend yourself from other patent claims.
ericHosick 16y ago
I understand their position. Basically, if you want to play with the "big boys" then you need to have a defensive patent portfolio. (I am in no way implying I agree with this, just that I understand.)
flipbrad 16y ago
This is a big boy move: like the spectrum auction, it's win-win: if they win, they have a defensive portfolio; if they lose, they force higher bids from others, meaning that others are going to have to outlay a lot more cash just to get into a position where they can sue Google from, so that once they do, they are doing so from a weaker position. Being able to spend billions on win-win moves that invariably weaken the field without any of those billions going towards improving client/consumer experience? Maybe Microsoft's got a valid point about abuses of dominant positions by Google.
- JoachimSchipper 16y ago
  > Maybe Microsoft's got a valid point about abuses of dominant positions by Google. I agree with you that they've made some clever moves, but Google owns no spectrum (and this was before Android, right?) and almost no patents. It's hard to argue that they are abusing their dominant position in those fields - people are scared of what they could do, but "potential monopolist" is not a strong basis for an antitrust case.
- nolok 16y ago
  Making sure android can offer all the expected features of a modern phone os without being sued to death isn't improving the consumer experience ? And the whole monopoly thing you said is ludicrous, having a business that is making a whole lot of cash is in no way the same thing as abusing a dominant position. I honestly can't even understand how you could confuse the two. That's like saying the red cross is abusing its dominant position since it earns so much donations that it can afford to send people pretty much everywhere while other orgs can't. (I am in no way implying a relation between google and the red cross, just the first exemple to pop in my mind)
- Gaussian 16y ago
  What will truly be interesting: How will Google wield its patent cache when, inevitably, waters get rougher in the future and some upstart punches them in the nose? If they shake it off and say, "let's dance," rather than calling their patent lawyers, then they will have lived up to the credo they're espousing here.
bugsy 16y ago
Just to state the obvious, "us, our partners and the open source community" excludes rivals and suggests something a little stronger than a defensive portfolio.
- btipling 16y ago
  Yet still it's a positive move. Startups will benefit from it.
grellas 16y ago
I don't know details about the patent portfolio upon which this bid was made so as to comment upon it specifically, but I can make a couple of observations about Google's strategic approach to patents: 1. Google is definitely not "anti-patent," either philosophically or otherwise. At the heart of its business is the PageRank patent, which is assigned to Stanford with exclusive license to Google. Even within the last month, Google got a patent for its "Systems and methods for enticing users to access a web site," i.e., its "Google Doodle" (see http://ipwatchdog.com/2011/03/25/google-patents-the-google-doodle/id=15873/ http://ipwatchdog.com/2011/03/25/google-patents-the-google-d... for an overview on this). And, of course, the blog post involved here very carefully delineates and distinguishes patents that foster innovation (presumably good) and others that are primarily gained to foment litigation, in particular "low-quality software patents." 2. Of course, Google is involved in a current, major fight involving Oracle's assertion of both copyright and patent Java-related claims against its Android technology. Google is a powerful adversary to take on, and it is blasting away quite skillfully seeking to invalidate the Oracle patents in that suit on Bilski grounds that they constitute "abstract ideas" and not bona fide patentable subject matter (see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1899156 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1899156 for a summary of relevant issues in that case). But no powerful litigant ever bets solely on how a court might interpret some nebulous body of law such as what constitutes patentable subject matter. As matters now stand, should Google lose on that issue, it has very little in the way of defense against such claims. Perhaps the patents upon which it is bidding will give it a practical way to attack Oracle so as to bolster its defense but, again, I don't know about the immediate portfolio or whether it even relates to the Java-related claims. That said, however, I am certain that the Oracle litigation, at a minimum, has spurred Google to consider this issue very carefully and to determine that it needs these tools very badly so as not to be exposed in the future to patent broadsides to which it has no answer other than to point out how weak the relevant patents are - which may be no answer at all in the real world of patent litigation. Hence, this patent portfolio bid has either an immediate aim in mind (Oracle litigation) or a long-term aim with the same strategic view in mind (cover yourself against flim-flam patent claims that might hinder Google's future ability to innovate). 3. The FTC recently issued a comprehensive report on the need for patent reform, and one of its main points concerned so-called "non-practicing entities" or what it has chosen to call "patent-assertion entites" (PAEs) or what is commonly known as "trolls" (see HN discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2303980 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2303980). These are patent holders who do not use their patents to produce things but rather use them solely for licensing and the concomitant litigation that inevitably follows against those who decline the licensing "offer." In reality, the PAE idea is much more complex than merely that of a shakedown racket. All sorts of large tech companies routinely gather up all sorts of patents for which they have no plans to innovate but which are vital to their business strategies, either to be used to attack rivals or to defend against them and whether for good or for bad motives. In making this bid, Google is basically acknowledging that it needs to arm itself in this department. This is neither inherently good or bad and could be used strictly for protecting Google's ability to innovate or it could be abused down the road, all depending on future choices to be made by the company's management. It is certainly a double-edged issue. Groklaw recently ran a piece answering the question "what's blocking innovation in America" and answered it with "IP laws" - this in turn led to some sparks flying here at HN as some, like me, defended IP in general while saying that it needs to be reformed and (many) others taking the more radical view that IP laws generally are to be castigated (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2210469 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2210469). In my view, the case for IP laws generally is made by companies such as Google, which uses such laws effectively and powerfully but which, at least to date, has not abused them. In this sense, Google has been an exemplary company on this issue. What the future may bring on this front, of course, remains to be seen.
akmiller 16y ago
The problem with making this sound like it's purely a defensive move is that if tomorrow the government decides they agree and would like to massively reform the software patent process would Google really be able to support that. They just spent 1 billion acquiring patents that they would then turn around and support reform that invalidates most of them. I call BS on that! No company is going to throw away a billion dollars for the greater good!
- MichaelGG 16y ago
  Or perhaps they realise, even with a new patent arsenal, it's still overall poor for their business? They probably also realise that any patent reform isn't going to happen very quickly, and this patent acquisition isn't going to be "thrown away".
- nene 16y ago
  In short term yes, but if we got rid of patents then Google wouldn't have to spend billion dollars on patents each year. I don't think Google is so short-sighted.
grishick 16y ago
Large patent portfolios owned by big companies represent the most danger for small companies trying to make something new. Big companies can afford to fight each other with armies of lawyers and settle on large piles of cash. However, if your startup gets a threatening letter from Google telling you that you are infringing on their patent, you are done. Google is a public company, so they have an obligation to their shareholders to turn their investments into profits. Hence, I don't see any reason, why Google's lawyers won't google through their newly acquired patent database to see how they can extort some juice settlements or shut down some small players.
felix0702 16y ago
Would you give years of hard works freely to someone who just waits to gain benefits from your hard works? Majority of the answers will be NO. Therefore, a patent system is still needed in order to protect inventor's hard works from being stolen by big sharks. However, there are problems with the current patent system. Why Innovation is stifled. Why trolls and litigation are likes wildfires. They all come down to one root cause. The current patent system treats all patents the same and does not factor in that the speed of the innovation in each industry is different. If we just look at the innovation speed of the software industry and the 20 years patent length, the problems mentioned earlier become obvious. Say if the software patent only last 5 or less than 10 years, the problems become mitigated. Trolls will need to justify the litigation costs vs revenue generated in less years. Many paper patents will become no value at all. Also, because the patent length is shorten to less than 10 year, it’ll force inventor to wait until implementation or commercialization of the patent is mature before filing the patent application. Otherwise, by the time implementation or commercialization is ready, the patent will most likely due soon.

161 points by fogus 16y ago

It would be great if they could create a patent pool where every company could join (e.g. paying a small yearly fee), so whenever somebody sues you, you would have the right to use all the patents in that patent pool to sue the other company back.

extension 16y ago
The problem is that each patent can only do a limited amount of damage to each company its used against, so members with larger portfolios would be stretching their defenses thin to cover the weaker companies. Still, I might like to see a strictly defensive patent pool between equally powerful players.

woan 16y ago

If this isn't a nearly $1b testament for real patent reform (not what is going through Congress now), I don't know what is...

acconrad 16y ago

Google is becoming more hypocritical by the day. First the Verizon deal. Next it was closing Android, now it is bidding on Nortel's patents as a protection power-play (and I'm sure there are countless others, but those are the first I'm reminded of). This is a "sorry we're not sorry" blog post...I never understand this. Stop pretending to be a small company in big company's clothes: own up to being a part of the system you swore not to be a part of, and move on. Search works for me, so I'm still happy.

BarkMore 16y ago
What's hypocritical about building a defensive patent portfolio?
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
Kylekramer 16y ago
Google can be ideologically pure about patents being evil and subsequently get sued to oblivion, or they can acknowledged the current reality and fight it while staying safe themselves. I'd know one I would pick. For example, I disagree with marijuana laws, but I am not about to light up in front of a cop.
- dexen 16y ago
  And who's there to stop Google from abusing the patent pool in 4 years from now? Yes, they have been pretty considerate business up to now. But future is not merely a direct projection of past. A portfolio of patents is as much an obligation as an asset. You cannot arbitrarily enforce patents only against certain competitors, lest you risk the patent in question being shot down in arbitration or court case.
  - nolok 16y ago
    And who's there to stop whoever buy these patents from abusing the patent pool in 4 years from now? In that situation, I would much rather have google own them on the risk that they might do something evil with it (but probably not if we believe their history), than any of the other companies who already proved they would.
  - bad_user 16y ago
    A portfolio of patents becomes a liability sooner or later, no matter who owns it. The only one who can stop that is you -- by voting, lobbying or donating money to the EFF or similar organizations that are fighting against software patents. If enough people did this, we wouldn't have this conversation -- but the truth is, most people accepted the status-quo and/or have other priorities, so after a little bit of hand-waving, life goes back to normal and it's business as usual. And companies have the obligation to defend themselves -- they can't afford to just bitch-and-moan about this issue. And even companies acting in good-faith (if such a thing exists for companies) -- will choose the path of least resistance (i.e. building a patents portfolio). Otherwise, to make a (bad) analogy, it would be like going to war with "make love" signs. Don't hate the player, hate the game.
acconrad 16y ago
I had a funny feeling this would be downvoted.
- ascendant 16y ago
  It's the never ending battle between ideology vs pragmatism. In a perfect world, I'm sure they'd love to stick to their original creed of "Don't be evil", but pragmatism dictates that occasionally they have to bend their own rules from time to time to make sure food gets on the table for their thousands of employees. I'm not saying you're right or wrong, but I get the sense that most HNers fall into the "pragmatism" camp. In this particular case, my bat-sensor isn't really detecting anything malevolent afoot. They and their partners have been getting hammered on all sides by patent lawsuits and Google has more than enough cash to come out swinging, and this is a major show of muscle to let people know they're not going to get pushed around like some two bit small company.
  - danssig 16y ago
    I'm pragmatic as well. What I find frustrating about this blatant Google fanboy-ism is that it is hypocritical on its face: any normal company thing they do gets trumpeted as "don't do evil! Weeeeee!" and every evil thing is defended with pragmatism. They're just a big public tech company. They're no more good/evil than Apple, Microsoft or anyone else and it's really frustrating watching otherwise intelligent adults behaving as though they were somehow different.
bad_user 16y ago
The first step to enlightenment is recognizing instances where you might be wrong ;-) I think we are too little and insignificant to hypothesize about the effects of net-neutrality (or the lack of it), and what will happen with the Internet ecosystem going forward; but personally I think net-neutrality is bad news for consumers, which would be ironic given how it was pushed forward. If anything, I blame Google for sticking their nose into this business, but I don't blame them. About "closing Android" -- their behavior has been consistent. The very first version of Android has been released in binary-form only. Android was never more open than it currently is, and as far as openness goes, it's not a black&white issue. Bidding on Nortel's patents makes sense, and I'm actually glad they did it, as companies like Oracle, Microsoft and Apple have the power to kill Android by means of their fat patents portfolio. And personally I care much, much more about a healthy smartphones ecosystem that has plenty of competition, rather than about ideological issues that may or may not have value. No, they aren't a small company anymore. Small companies in the same situation either sell-out or die.
- danssig 16y ago
  If you're a fan boy then you're almost certainly neither enlightened nor correct.
danssig 16y ago
Disgusting that a post questioning Google gets voted down like this. Also you forgot where they made a big stink about China, claimed they were pulling out and.... didn't.

dochtman 16y ago

I hope they will license the patents freely to all open source projects, or something like that, to demonstrate the unevilness.

ssp 16y ago
Indeed. They could consider doing something similar to Red Hat: http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html http://www.redhat.com/legal/patent_policy.html
jwr 16y ago
Let's rephrase that: their unevilness will be demonstrated by their licensing of the patents freely to all open source projects. Or not.
zmmmmm 16y ago
There would be some irony in that since it would allow Oracle to use them to defend against any counter strike Google makes in the Java / Android patent suit.
- jbri 16y ago
  Note that such "free licensing" for patents generally includes the stipulation that you waive your license if you engage in any patent suit against the patent-holding company - for example, the Red Hat promise includes the words: "Our Promise does not extend to any party who institutes patent litigation against Red Hat..." The whole point is to free up your patent collection so anyone can use it, without devaluing it as ammunition to defend yourself from other patent claims.

ericHosick 16y ago

I understand their position. Basically, if you want to play with the "big boys" then you need to have a defensive patent portfolio. (I am in no way implying I agree with this, just that I understand.)

flipbrad 16y ago

This is a big boy move: like the spectrum auction, it's win-win: if they win, they have a defensive portfolio; if they lose, they force higher bids from others, meaning that others are going to have to outlay a lot more cash just to get into a position where they can sue Google from, so that once they do, they are doing so from a weaker position. Being able to spend billions on win-win moves that invariably weaken the field without any of those billions going towards improving client/consumer experience? Maybe Microsoft's got a valid point about abuses of dominant positions by Google.

JoachimSchipper 16y ago
> Maybe Microsoft's got a valid point about abuses of dominant positions by Google. I agree with you that they've made some clever moves, but Google owns no spectrum (and this was before Android, right?) and almost no patents. It's hard to argue that they are abusing their dominant position in those fields - people are scared of what they could do, but "potential monopolist" is not a strong basis for an antitrust case.
nolok 16y ago
Making sure android can offer all the expected features of a modern phone os without being sued to death isn't improving the consumer experience ? And the whole monopoly thing you said is ludicrous, having a business that is making a whole lot of cash is in no way the same thing as abusing a dominant position. I honestly can't even understand how you could confuse the two. That's like saying the red cross is abusing its dominant position since it earns so much donations that it can afford to send people pretty much everywhere while other orgs can't. (I am in no way implying a relation between google and the red cross, just the first exemple to pop in my mind)
Gaussian 16y ago
What will truly be interesting: How will Google wield its patent cache when, inevitably, waters get rougher in the future and some upstart punches them in the nose? If they shake it off and say, "let's dance," rather than calling their patent lawyers, then they will have lived up to the credo they're espousing here.

bugsy 16y ago

Just to state the obvious, "us, our partners and the open source community" excludes rivals and suggests something a little stronger than a defensive portfolio.

btipling 16y ago
Yet still it's a positive move. Startups will benefit from it.

grellas 16y ago

I don't know details about the patent portfolio upon which this bid was made so as to comment upon it specifically, but I can make a couple of observations about Google's strategic approach to patents: 1. Google is definitely not "anti-patent," either philosophically or otherwise. At the heart of its business is the PageRank patent, which is assigned to Stanford with exclusive license to Google. Even within the last month, Google got a patent for its "Systems and methods for enticing users to access a web site," i.e., its "Google Doodle" (see http://ipwatchdog.com/2011/03/25/google-patents-the-google-doodle/id=15873/ http://ipwatchdog.com/2011/03/25/google-patents-the-google-d... for an overview on this). And, of course, the blog post involved here very carefully delineates and distinguishes patents that foster innovation (presumably good) and others that are primarily gained to foment litigation, in particular "low-quality software patents." 2. Of course, Google is involved in a current, major fight involving Oracle's assertion of both copyright and patent Java-related claims against its Android technology. Google is a powerful adversary to take on, and it is blasting away quite skillfully seeking to invalidate the Oracle patents in that suit on Bilski grounds that they constitute "abstract ideas" and not bona fide patentable subject matter (see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1899156 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1899156 for a summary of relevant issues in that case). But no powerful litigant ever bets solely on how a court might interpret some nebulous body of law such as what constitutes patentable subject matter. As matters now stand, should Google lose on that issue, it has very little in the way of defense against such claims. Perhaps the patents upon which it is bidding will give it a practical way to attack Oracle so as to bolster its defense but, again, I don't know about the immediate portfolio or whether it even relates to the Java-related claims. That said, however, I am certain that the Oracle litigation, at a minimum, has spurred Google to consider this issue very carefully and to determine that it needs these tools very badly so as not to be exposed in the future to patent broadsides to which it has no answer other than to point out how weak the relevant patents are - which may be no answer at all in the real world of patent litigation. Hence, this patent portfolio bid has either an immediate aim in mind (Oracle litigation) or a long-term aim with the same strategic view in mind (cover yourself against flim-flam patent claims that might hinder Google's future ability to innovate). 3. The FTC recently issued a comprehensive report on the need for patent reform, and one of its main points concerned so-called "non-practicing entities" or what it has chosen to call "patent-assertion entites" (PAEs) or what is commonly known as "trolls" (see HN discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2303980 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2303980). These are patent holders who do not use their patents to produce things but rather use them solely for licensing and the concomitant litigation that inevitably follows against those who decline the licensing "offer." In reality, the PAE idea is much more complex than merely that of a shakedown racket. All sorts of large tech companies routinely gather up all sorts of patents for which they have no plans to innovate but which are vital to their business strategies, either to be used to attack rivals or to defend against them and whether for good or for bad motives. In making this bid, Google is basically acknowledging that it needs to arm itself in this department. This is neither inherently good or bad and could be used strictly for protecting Google's ability to innovate or it could be abused down the road, all depending on future choices to be made by the company's management. It is certainly a double-edged issue. Groklaw recently ran a piece answering the question "what's blocking innovation in America" and answered it with "IP laws" - this in turn led to some sparks flying here at HN as some, like me, defended IP in general while saying that it needs to be reformed and (many) others taking the more radical view that IP laws generally are to be castigated (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2210469 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2210469). In my view, the case for IP laws generally is made by companies such as Google, which uses such laws effectively and powerfully but which, at least to date, has not abused them. In this sense, Google has been an exemplary company on this issue. What the future may bring on this front, of course, remains to be seen.

akmiller 16y ago

The problem with making this sound like it's purely a defensive move is that if tomorrow the government decides they agree and would like to massively reform the software patent process would Google really be able to support that. They just spent 1 billion acquiring patents that they would then turn around and support reform that invalidates most of them. I call BS on that! No company is going to throw away a billion dollars for the greater good!

MichaelGG 16y ago
Or perhaps they realise, even with a new patent arsenal, it's still overall poor for their business? They probably also realise that any patent reform isn't going to happen very quickly, and this patent acquisition isn't going to be "thrown away".
nene 16y ago
In short term yes, but if we got rid of patents then Google wouldn't have to spend billion dollars on patents each year. I don't think Google is so short-sighted.

grishick 16y ago

Large patent portfolios owned by big companies represent the most danger for small companies trying to make something new. Big companies can afford to fight each other with armies of lawyers and settle on large piles of cash. However, if your startup gets a threatening letter from Google telling you that you are infringing on their patent, you are done. Google is a public company, so they have an obligation to their shareholders to turn their investments into profits. Hence, I don't see any reason, why Google's lawyers won't google through their newly acquired patent database to see how they can extort some juice settlements or shut down some small players.

felix0702 16y ago

Would you give years of hard works freely to someone who just waits to gain benefits from your hard works? Majority of the answers will be NO. Therefore, a patent system is still needed in order to protect inventor's hard works from being stolen by big sharks. However, there are problems with the current patent system. Why Innovation is stifled. Why trolls and litigation are likes wildfires. They all come down to one root cause. The current patent system treats all patents the same and does not factor in that the speed of the innovation in each industry is different. If we just look at the innovation speed of the software industry and the 20 years patent length, the problems mentioned earlier become obvious. Say if the software patent only last 5 or less than 10 years, the problems become mitigated. Trolls will need to justify the litigation costs vs revenue generated in less years. Many paper patents will become no value at all. Also, because the patent length is shorten to less than 10 year, it’ll force inventor to wait until implementation or commercialization of the patent is mature before filing the patent application. Otherwise, by the time implementation or commercialization is ready, the patent will most likely due soon.