Google wants to be the biggest patent troll in the world

[dpareja]

http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.ca/2015/04/announcing-patent-purchase-promotion.html

We invite you to sell us your patents. The Patent Purchase Promotion is an experimental marketplace for patents that’s simple, easy to use, and fast.

Patent owners sell patents for numerous reasons (such as the need to raise money or changes in a company’s business direction). 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.

So today we’re announcing the Patent Purchase Promotion as an experiment to remove friction from the patent market. From May 8, 2015 through May 22, 2015, we’ll open a streamlined portal for patent holders to tell Google about patents they’re willing to sell at a price they set. As soon as the portal closes, we’ll review all the submissions, and let the submitters know whether we’re interested in buying their patents by June 26, 2015. If we contact you about purchasing your patent, we’ll work through some additional diligence with you and look to close a transaction in short order. We anticipate everyone we transact with getting paid by late August.

It should be noted that the sellers retain a licence to use the patents they sell to Google, but how is this going to help with all the patent litigation out there already?

[mellenORL]

Google wants to be the 900 lb gorilla in the aisles, as a protection racket or a body guard, I dunno, to your average patent holder. Patent trolls have all but made it impossible for small, non-corporate inventors to navigate and survive the system because of litigation. To the point that patents will likely cease to be enforceable in any practical sense very soon. We are evolving into an open source world, including systems and hardware. The second you release a patented product that sells or looks like it has potential to sell, it is going to be copied and marketed without your authorization. Even big corporations get burned on infringements all the time.