Once again, Google is looking to gain good publicity by saying they won't assert ten patents against open source software. Compared to other companies that had done this before such as IBM and Sun, which each pledged 500 and 1,600 respectively, the number may not seem like a lot -- but the actions behind it are very questionable. When IBM and Sun first started doing moves like these, people recognized them for what they really are, a sham. Anyone can go ahead and say they won't attack certain patents because if they have absolutely no relationship to anything you are working towards, why would you ever borrow pursuing litigation? Also, what about the patents you DO own? Considering that Google owns around 17,000 patents themselves, just ten is a minuscule number, because they still have the ability to sue any one of those. That leaves Google with around 16,990 other patents it can prosecute... It is indeed a strange thing for Google to do. We'll see if they do it again.
Great article Adam. I wrote about the same thing on my blog post. I think it is a little unbelievable how Google is pledging such a small fraction of their patent portfolio compared to other companies such as IBM and Sun Microsystems. Hopefully, in the near future, Google should will more.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Google chose to donate ten relatively useless patents as well--this is in no way a show of good faith. This just seems like brinkmanship in the smartphone war.
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