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Google Wave Patent License (what does this mean?)

4 points by paulgb 17y ago

paulgb 17y ago
If you institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the implementation of the specification constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses for the specification granted to you under this License shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed. This part piqued my interest. So if I sue some third party because I feel Google's implementation of Wave violates my patent, I lose the license to the Wave patents? Or if I feel that a third party implementation of Wave violates my patents, do I also lose my license? Eg. if a Wave implementation violates my (say) encryption patent, and I file a lawsuit for patent violation, do I lose my license to the Wave patents? Seems like a neat way to scare off patent trolls, but I'm not sure I'm interpreting it right.
- wmf 17y ago
  I think you are interpreting it right, although it won't have any effect on pure patent trolls since they don't need to license Google's patents anyway.
tlrobinson 17y ago
Google promises not to sue you (or rather gives you a license so they can't sue you) for violating any of their patents while implementing the Wave Protocol. Unless you sue them. Pretty standard for open specifications backed by large companies, I think.
glevy 17y ago
Leave it to the attorneys to come up with scary stuff. It seems that Google may be learning from Microsoft to push its weight around. I wonder if this would violate antitrust laws? Under normal circumstances if Google were a smaller company, an inventor whose invention have been infringed by Google, would have the option of shopping around and use another product than Wave. And Google may be entirely in its own right to refuse providing him with a service. However, given the potential of Wave and the enormous size of Google, Wave could possibly completely replace email. Depriving the inventor of the Wave license would cause him irreparable harm since he cannot shop around for a comparable product.Google is facing an antitrust issue. Google is becoming like Microsoft. Here is another angle: Background: If several persons are co-inventors on a wave invention without having assigned it to a single entity such as a company, then each co-inventor own 100% of the invention. This means that each one can independently conduct business such as leasing or selling 100% of the invention. So let's say that Google infringes on the invention and one of the inventors sues Google for 100% of damage. Google by contract can cancel the license for that one inventor but the other ones can still use the wave license. So one of the inventor needs to be willing to sacrifice himself. Who would sue Google anyways???? Microsoft???

4 points by paulgb 17y ago

If you institute patent litigation against any entity (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the implementation of the specification constitutes direct or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses for the specification granted to you under this License shall terminate as of the date such litigation is filed. This part piqued my interest. So if I sue some third party because I feel Google's implementation of Wave violates my patent, I lose the license to the Wave patents? Or if I feel that a third party implementation of Wave violates my patents, do I also lose my license? Eg. if a Wave implementation violates my (say) encryption patent, and I file a lawsuit for patent violation, do I lose my license to the Wave patents? Seems like a neat way to scare off patent trolls, but I'm not sure I'm interpreting it right.

wmf 17y ago
I think you are interpreting it right, although it won't have any effect on pure patent trolls since they don't need to license Google's patents anyway.

tlrobinson 17y ago

Google promises not to sue you (or rather gives you a license so they can't sue you) for violating any of their patents while implementing the Wave Protocol. Unless you sue them. Pretty standard for open specifications backed by large companies, I think.

glevy 17y ago

Leave it to the attorneys to come up with scary stuff. It seems that Google may be learning from Microsoft to push its weight around. I wonder if this would violate antitrust laws? Under normal circumstances if Google were a smaller company, an inventor whose invention have been infringed by Google, would have the option of shopping around and use another product than Wave. And Google may be entirely in its own right to refuse providing him with a service. However, given the potential of Wave and the enormous size of Google, Wave could possibly completely replace email. Depriving the inventor of the Wave license would cause him irreparable harm since he cannot shop around for a comparable product.Google is facing an antitrust issue. Google is becoming like Microsoft. Here is another angle: Background: If several persons are co-inventors on a wave invention without having assigned it to a single entity such as a company, then each co-inventor own 100% of the invention. This means that each one can independently conduct business such as leasing or selling 100% of the invention. So let's say that Google infringes on the invention and one of the inventors sues Google for 100% of damage. Google by contract can cancel the license for that one inventor but the other ones can still use the wave license. So one of the inventor needs to be willing to sacrifice himself. Who would sue Google anyways???? Microsoft???