Google today announced a new initiative to make an attempt and keep patents out of the hands of patent trolls, entities whose only business is gathering intellectual property and filing legal cases. This new effort is called the Patent Purchase Promotion by Google. The plot is simple: make it simple to sell your patents to Google rather than the wrong people. “Patent owners sell patents for numerous reasons (such as the need to raise money or changes in a company’s business direction),” wrote Allen Lo, Google’s deputy general counsel for patents. “Unfortunately, the usual patent marketplace can sometimes be challenging, especially for smaller participants who sometimes end up working with patent trolls. Then bad things happen, like lawsuits, lots of wasted effort, and generally bad karma. Rarely does this provide any meaningful benefit to the original patent owner.” There is no affirmation offered in the post written by Lo that Google would not use these patents for taking legal action in the future. Also, the program makes no attempt to open the marketplace to other similar tech companies, something that would advantage the entire ecosystem. Google is generally asking the patent owners to believe them. The company has promised in the past to use its patents watchfully, suing only if someone sues it first. Of course, a company’s stand on patents can change over time as it moves from young disrupters to firmly established incumbents.
