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Earlier quoted context omitted.
I understood it as the company or the pool could counter-sue with the entire pool rather then just the portfolio originally owned by the company.
Exactly. Joining the pool effectively signs away your rights to make offensive lawsuits, in exchange for gaining the rights of the entire pool for defensive purposes.
By Lee saying that "Google Should Publicly Oppose Software Patents," he is trying to box Google into a precarious position because one of Google's original patents -- PageRank -- is one of its key differentiators, and he knows Google is never going to "oppose" patents or give that up.
It would be great for them to dissolve their rights to Patent No. 6,529,903 (page rank)
or 7,136,875 (adwords)
or 7,158,878 (Google Earth)
but they won't.
Apple has over 4000 patents listed (my favorite is 4,136,359, Microcomputer with timing based display, by Woz).
Facebook, 11.
Not sure what is pending on the FB front though but surely a lot.
Point being: unilateral or nothing. Lawyer to lawyer wars of words, however public are tedious.
Here's an idea I had the other day, which may be crazy or old news: Google should start a patent pool with all of their patents. Every company would be granted full license to use these patents, as long as they commit not to sue anyone else (in or out of the pool) for patent infringement. Ideally, they would commit their own patents to the pool as well. With enough buy-in, this could effectively null out software pat…
That wouldn't defend them against the pure patent troll businesses without products or research. Also, what would happen with the small open source developers if there's such a stash of legal power concentrated by their competitors. It can turn very bad.
Google is a major investor in PATENT TROLL Intellectual Ventures
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_Ventures
http://www.techflash.com/seattle/2011/05/intellectual-ventur...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. Joining the pool effectively signs away your rights to make offensive lawsuits, in exchange for gaining the rights of the entire pool for defensive purposes.
Patent Trolls do not make or sell any products so it would not be possible to counter sue them.
But the patent pool would be mostly so those companies don't sue each other. So many companies in the tech industry are suing each other right now. It's ridiculous.
Google has 740 or so patents so far. It would be great for them to dissolve their rights to Patent No. 6,529,903 (page rank) or 7,136,875 (adwords) or 7,158,878 (Google Earth) but they won't. Apple has over 4000 patents listed (my favorite is 4,136,359, Microcomputer with timing based display, by Woz). Facebook, 11. Not sure what is pending on the FB front though but surely a lot. Point being: unilateral or nothing.…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Patent Trolls do not make or sell any products so it would not be possible to counter sue them.
You're right about patent trolls, but this would allow those companies to have access to a vast amount of patents, so it should become harder for patent trolls to sue any of them, although far from impossible. But the patent pool would be mostly so those companies don't sue each other. So many companies in the tech industry are suing each other right now. It's ridiculous.