Google Reaffirms Stance Against Software Patents

An anonymous reader writes "Google has again publicly affirmed its stance against software patents during an announcement over a potential defensive acquisition. These days, when Microsoft, Apple, and others are abusing software patents, it's nice to see one large company calling them junk."

Comments

sounds a lot like Jeff Bezos

[Anonymous Coward]

pontificating about the evils of software patents. Then he turned around and sued his biggest competitor, Barnes and Noble for infringing his one-click patent. Because when push comes to shove, those who have the weapons will use them.

The proper reaction to Google's statement is a collective eye roll.

Re:sounds a lot like Jeff Bezos

[cavreader]

Google is not a software or a technology company so promoting open source is not hurting their profits. They are a marketing and information collection and management company that just happens to use some of the newest technology available. They are sitting on an advanced and solid infrastructure collecting information from every conceivable place they can get access to. Who really gives a shit about their stance on software patents? Their business model is perfect for the open source development model. They can get access to anyone else's work, improve upon on it, deploy it, and release their changes back to the community. By the time anyone else can take advantage of any changes they contributed Google will have reaped the benefits and moved on to something else. It's their policies on data collection and profiling everyone on the damn plant and using that information for profit any way they see fit that should give you a pause.

Re:Yet they still file them.

[hedwards]

Because if they didn't file them, clearly nobody else would. Which is the problem, patents are both offensive and defensive tools depending upon the situation.

Re:Learn who is patent troll and who is not

[pieterh]

"Microsoft never has attacked other companies"

Microsoft files rare patent lawsuit against Salesforce.com
Microsoft Slaps Motorola with Patent Lawsuit over Android
Microsoft wins big on PND patent lawsuit
Microsoft Files Patent Lawsuit Vs TiVo Again
Patent Lawsuits Filed by Former Microsoft CTO’s Firm

Further, Microsoft has lobbied extensively in Europe for a software patent regime, funding numerous attempts to modify the current situation where a patent has to be litigated in each country separately. If they were being defensive, they would not do this, the current European patent system favors defense.

And further, Microsoft has pushed very hard, for many years now, to find a way to extract a toll on Linux, via patents.

They are not a patent troll, mainly because they delegated that job to Intellectual Ventures, a pure patent troll firm. They are repeatedly attacked by firms who hold patents, though often it seems Microsoft stole the technology, and the small firms are justified in seeking compensation. But they do abuse their patents, and they do abuse the patent system in an attempt to fight competitors like Linux and Android that they can't beat on technical merit.

Re:They can afford it

[MrMista_B]

Lack of patents does not mean you're unable to charge money for software.

Re:Learn who is patent troll and who is not

[Dishevel]

I am not sure what you are smoking but not only is Microsoft suing android users, but they were financing SCOs fight against everyone using linux.
Microsoft is very much in the software patent offensive game.