Google Bidding $900 Million on Patent Portfolio
In a move to help keep their lawyers’ workload down, Google has gone ahead and decided to buy up some patents. Nortel is auctioning off some of their assets throughout the company’s financial trouble and they have a portfolio of patents that Google could use to help further their technological advances in Android and other areas without having to worry about being sued.
Google says this is their best course of action outside of the full-blown patent reform that many of us are hoping to see. In a statement, Google directly calls out patent holders who sit on these assets with no intention of doing anything with them except suing whoever accidentally violates them. Here’s an excerpt from Google’s official statement on the matter:
The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation. Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything; others are motivated by a desire to block competing products or profit from the success of a rival’s new technology.
The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits. It’s for these reasons that Google has long argued in favor of real patent reform, which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole.
We couldn’t agree any more on that last part, Google. You don’t have to explain to us why you’re going the route everyone else has. The current patent system is dated beyond belief and if the governing bodies responsible for it won’t revisit the issue then there’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to create a portfolio of your own. [Google] [Thanks Jeff!]