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Maybe I'm being naively optimistic, but if we take Google to be both unafraid to take risks and long-term in its thinking, we can interpret all of its actions a

Maybe I'm being naively optimistic, but if we take Google to be both unafraid to take risks and long-term in its thinking, we can interpret all of its actions as spending as little as possible on patents while getting opponents to spend as much as possible and simultaneously undermining software patents at large. Seems to me like Google is taking advantage of a growing anti-patent sentiment in the tech community that's beginning to spill over into the mainstream and capitalizing on the idea that the innovation-stifling patent regime is contributing to a stagnating economy. Exhibit A: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-02/google-hires-federal-trade-commission-intellectual-property-expert-michel.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-02/google-hires-federa... Exhibit B: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/08/intellectual-property http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2011/08/in... Exhibit C: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/when-patents-attack http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/441/w... http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/08/04/138934689/the-tuesday-podcast-the-patent-war http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2011/08/04/138934689/the-tues...

kenjackson 15y ago
Probably naively optimistic. ;-) The public generally doesn't care. The courts won't change course without congress. Congress won't make a big change. Minor reform at best (I doubt we'll see much more than what is already in the oven). The problem is that Android isn't viewed as innovative by most consumers. I think in a PR battle between Apple saying Google copies, and Google saying that Apple is blocking them from innovating -- Apple wins. And the other issue is that a lot of the patents at stake are HW patents. Undermining HW patents is a much harder sell.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  > Congress won't make a big change. Every dollar Microsoft spends on patents cannot be spent on lobbies. And the other way around applies to Google: every dollar not spent chasing patents can be spent lobbying for patent reform. And, while that leaves hardware patents untouched, they are not the problem. Microsoft is extorting Google partners using bogus software patents, not hardware ones.
  - kenjackson 15y ago
    Every dollar Microsoft spends on patents cannot be spent on lobbies. And the other way around applies to Google: every dollar not spent chasing patents can be spent lobbying for patent reform This isn't a matter of lobbyist, rather that congress already has a big piece of legislation they're moving now on patent reform. First-to-file is years in the making. And for 95% of patents its a total no-op. Congress just will not move quickly on this. And I think Google is going to focus its lobby efforts trying to keep people away from serious antitrust investigations against them, more than patent reform. And, while that leaves hardware patents untouched, they are not the problem. Microsoft is extorting Google partners using bogus software patents, not hardware ones. Google wants to make this anti-MS, because MS has a worse rep. Their real concern though is Apple. For example, notice who's not shown interest in the InterDigital patents? Microsoft. Who has? Apple, Google, Samsung. Apple doesn't want to get $10/handset for Android. They want to block Android from shipping, period. And Apple IS using HW patents to block Android. For example, they've used HW design patents such as #D618,677. Or even this patent on volume rockers: #7,863,533. MS is happy to just collect some revenue, and try to slow Android down so they can get their phones up to speed with Mango/Tango. MS will never make a lot of money directly from the cell phone market. 100M units sold is about $1.5B in direct revenue for them. Not chump change, but not a lot of money (on par with about how much money Visual Studio makes). For Apple this is almost their complete business now. They make $250/unit. $10 royalty from Samsung doesn't offset the fact that someone bought an Android machine rather than iOS. Plus the Nortel patents give them a bunch of HW patents that Apple will likely assert, especially if Android begins to make another push.
    - patrickaljord 15y ago
      HW patents are useless against Android. Android is just software. If Apple want to attack OEM on hardware patents, good luck to them. Samsung, Motorola and even HTC (with S3 and even their own) have tons of HW patents, this is a game Apple cannot win as all OEM could block Apple from shipping their devices, remember, only only one patent from these OEM has to be valid to block Apple from shipping. Actually, the same can be said about software patents too...

kenjackson 15y ago

Probably naively optimistic. ;-) The public generally doesn't care. The courts won't change course without congress. Congress won't make a big change. Minor reform at best (I doubt we'll see much more than what is already in the oven). The problem is that Android isn't viewed as innovative by most consumers. I think in a PR battle between Apple saying Google copies, and Google saying that Apple is blocking them from innovating -- Apple wins. And the other issue is that a lot of the patents at stake are HW patents. Undermining HW patents is a much harder sell.

rbanffy 15y ago
> Congress won't make a big change. Every dollar Microsoft spends on patents cannot be spent on lobbies. And the other way around applies to Google: every dollar not spent chasing patents can be spent lobbying for patent reform. And, while that leaves hardware patents untouched, they are not the problem. Microsoft is extorting Google partners using bogus software patents, not hardware ones.
- kenjackson 15y ago
  Every dollar Microsoft spends on patents cannot be spent on lobbies. And the other way around applies to Google: every dollar not spent chasing patents can be spent lobbying for patent reform This isn't a matter of lobbyist, rather that congress already has a big piece of legislation they're moving now on patent reform. First-to-file is years in the making. And for 95% of patents its a total no-op. Congress just will not move quickly on this. And I think Google is going to focus its lobby efforts trying to keep people away from serious antitrust investigations against them, more than patent reform. And, while that leaves hardware patents untouched, they are not the problem. Microsoft is extorting Google partners using bogus software patents, not hardware ones. Google wants to make this anti-MS, because MS has a worse rep. Their real concern though is Apple. For example, notice who's not shown interest in the InterDigital patents? Microsoft. Who has? Apple, Google, Samsung. Apple doesn't want to get $10/handset for Android. They want to block Android from shipping, period. And Apple IS using HW patents to block Android. For example, they've used HW design patents such as #D618,677. Or even this patent on volume rockers: #7,863,533. MS is happy to just collect some revenue, and try to slow Android down so they can get their phones up to speed with Mango/Tango. MS will never make a lot of money directly from the cell phone market. 100M units sold is about $1.5B in direct revenue for them. Not chump change, but not a lot of money (on par with about how much money Visual Studio makes). For Apple this is almost their complete business now. They make $250/unit. $10 royalty from Samsung doesn't offset the fact that someone bought an Android machine rather than iOS. Plus the Nortel patents give them a bunch of HW patents that Apple will likely assert, especially if Android begins to make another push.
  - patrickaljord 15y ago
    HW patents are useless against Android. Android is just software. If Apple want to attack OEM on hardware patents, good luck to them. Samsung, Motorola and even HTC (with S3 and even their own) have tons of HW patents, this is a game Apple cannot win as all OEM could block Apple from shipping their devices, remember, only only one patent from these OEM has to be valid to block Apple from shipping. Actually, the same can be said about software patents too...