
Google patent portfolio is too weak to protect android - pbradv
http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2011/01/google-is-patently-too-weak-to-protect.html
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extension
My secret hope is that Google is letting themselves be martyred before they
launch a crusade against the entire patent system. If they let consumers feel
the impact of litigation, they might build some public awareness of the
problem.

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Joeri
It seems there isn't any scale at which you can safely innovate without
running up against software patents.

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Splines
I'm no lawyer, but the tinkerer in me thinks that this is why we can't have
nice things.

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joe_the_user
I find it stunning and appalling that there is no consideration of the merits
of suit and the patents in this discussion.

It's just "you don't have enough patents, you lose"...

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gnok
Unfortunately innovation as measured by patents, is measured more easily on
the scale of quantity than quality. Today, patents are more like trapdoors --
the more of them you have, the higher the chance that your 'enemy' would fall
into one. And this is where you let your sharks loose.

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buro9
When Palm was up for sale I did wonder why Google didn't value it very highly
just to acquire their patent portfolio.

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andybak
I wondered the same thing at the time. Google needs to start tackling the
patent system head-on. They dabbled a little bit in the Bilski case but I
think it would be a more valuable use of their energy than the ill-considered
h264 battle.

I wonder how much assistance the $100 million they spent on On2 could have
provided to the patent reform movement?

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rabidsnail
I'm sure there are plenty of patent trolls that have patents that Oracle's
violating. Can Google pay one of them to act as their mercenary army, having
them counter-sue Oracle?

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blub
I remember this was not considered ok when MS allegedly did it with SCO... Or
do morals change depending on who has what stakes in the fight?

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rabidsnail
I didn't have a problem with ms using sco to sue for them. I had a problem
with ms using patent lawsuits to attempt to crush the competition. Suing in
self-defense is a different matter.

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yason
While Google is the principal developer for Android it would be totally grand
to see an army of joint Android hardware makers unite and sue Oracle
collectively for infringing _their_ patents. And offer a settlement in the
form that Oracle gives up all Android patent claims. They would certainly have
the incentive and capability to do that, and it would probably make much
economic sense should the Android situation turn sour.

On a sidenote: it seems that bullying and dominance is an inseparable human
trait. We came up with the patent system to give power to the little man so
that big bullies can't take his invention away. Then the patent system ends up
the same: the bullies that are big can dominate over smaller players. Then
there are even bigger bullies like IBM who have a massive patent portfolio.
They could pull a stunt by simply asking Oracle to step off or find that
they're infringing numerous IBM's patents. While IBM are not directly related
to Android they do have some track record in the open source world; they're
part of Open Invention Network, too.

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blub
"and sue Oracle collectively for infringing their patents."

What patents is Oracle infringing on?

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WildUtah
Doesn't matter. Patent infringement cases are decided by twelve undereducated
Texans based on whose lawyer looks better in a five thousand dollar suit.

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regularfry
Google's exactly the company I'd expect to follow a policy of saying "Don't
sue us or we _will_ invalidate your portfolio." I'd be more than a little
confident that they could do it, too.

Sure, it's more expensive than a licensing deal, but it's also a much bigger
stick than a cross-licensable portfolio - disproportionately so, in my
opinion.

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extension
Do you know how one would go about this? Can Google actively invalidate
patents which they are not being accused of infringing?

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Tuna-Fish
No. But they can go after every patent is raised against them.

This is the primary reason patents are mostly talk -- sure, MS can claim that
Linux infringes a hundred of their patents. It probably infringes some of
those, and some of the ones it infringes are probably even valid. But actually
testing it in court would put the patent portfolio at risk -- and at least for
now, they have valued not putting their patents at risk more than they have
valued attacking their competitors.

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Uchikoma
Can they protect WebM?

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antimatter15
Google does seem to do a lot of research and publishes lots of projects, I'm
curious if this serves as a sort of portfolio of prior art.

