Google: We Are So Over Patents

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Google says it is fed up with patents? You'd never know it by the sheer amount of patents the company has sucked up over the last 12 - 18 months.

“One thing that we are very seriously taking a look at is the question of software patents and whether, in fact, the patent system as it currently exists is the right system to incent innovation,” said Google public policy director Pablo Chavez at a conference in Mountain View, Calif, today.
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Defensive measures, acknowledging the reality of the current litigious climate. Also, not wanting to bring a knife to a gunfight.
 
Hope they can change it, but I really doubt it will.

I give it a month or two, at best a year, then they will be back on the bandwagon.
 
Croak said:
Defensive measures, acknowledging the reality of the current litigious climate. Also, not wanting to bring a knife to a gunfight.
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Exactly. They're just being pragmatic. I hate that I have to pay my taxes like I do, but I realize that I have to because I'm not rich enough to hide money in offshore accounts.
 
Patents are great, you can buy up a company's patents, fire all the employees, then go a trollin' for the monies. That's how we promote business here in America! It's all about the innovation and competition in a free market!
 
Patents were invented to promote innovation. Now, they exist to help the rich get richer by preventing competition, which stifles innovation and raises costs.
 
Oh, Google. You guys have enough weight to try and enact reform but you're a bit too cosy and don't want to rock the boat. Understandable, you're in it for the profit like any business. But, don't just blow smoke up my ass as honestly that's more irritating than just playing the game.
 
The irony is that they said this the day after getting Motorola to launch another patent lawsuit against Apple.
 
Stone Cold said:
Patents were invented to promote innovation. Now, they exist to help the rich get richer by preventing competition, which stifles innovation and raises costs.
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Yep. Imagine if they scrapped the whole system, all the new stuff we'd see come up. I find the concept of having only one of everything is stupid. Companies should be able to make something similar to another company's product. It gives the consumer more to choose from.

Patents do nothing but hinder on further production of products since every company is walking on eggshells to avoid getting sued.
 
blitzkommando said:
Oh, Google. You guys have enough weight to try and enact reform but you're a bit too cosy and don't want to rock the boat. Understandable, you're in it for the profit like any business. But, don't just blow smoke up my ass as honestly that's more irritating than just playing the game.
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Google has weight to enact reform? Since when? Last I checked congress *hates* Google because Google doesn't pay them any money and undermines the people that do pay them money.

Google doesn't have shit in the political scene. I'd love to see them get software patents destroyed, but you are way, *way* overestimating Google's political clout.
 
blitzkommando said:
Oh, Google. You guys have enough weight to try and enact reform but you're a bit too cosy and don't want to rock the boat. Understandable, you're in it for the profit like any business. But, don't just blow smoke up my ass as honestly that's more irritating than just playing the game.
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It's called REALITY. Google doesn't have a choice but to react because by doing nothing, they might lost more than they bargained for.
 
This is risk-benefit management. Even 'evil' apple is compelled. Once patents made it onto the risk matrix, they could no longer be ignored.

I have to give Google (and those that give Google media attention on the subject) credit to be the first one to roll up enough patents to be able to respond and then play the hero card and denounce such a flawed system. Now Google suing people will be them fighting off the bad guys.

If Google can keep the media's attention, it will be difficult for others to stay neutral or defend the patent system. I hope the word spreads.
 
Funny coming from a company trying to shut down Apple with an injunction on their entire product line through Motorola.
 
Outamyhead said:
Funny coming from a company trying to shut down Apple with an injunction on their entire product line through Motorola.
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Funny how it only happened AFTER the trolling Apple has a possible injunction (which went in front of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday) against the Galaxy Nexus.

Funny how it only happened AFTER Apple started their crazed patent trolling.

The patent system in it's current form is seriously flawed and is doing nothing but hindering innovation.
 
Outamyhead said:
Funny coming from a company trying to shut down Apple with an injunction on their entire product line through Motorola.
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It's called fighting fire with fire.

Lawyers are nothing but terrorists who go around extorting honest, hard-working people, and honest businesses for money using the coercive force of the state. It is impossible to run a business in the United States without some bullshit lawsuit because :

1.You violated a completely bogus patent that shouldn't have been granted in the first place.
2.You didn't slap 50 warning labels on your product. The Samsung Series 7 Slate is a perfect example; it comes with a BOOK (yes BOOK) of warnings for all kinds of stupid stuff like don't use it in a shower or a sauna.
3.You didn't spend outrageous amounts of money to make your business ADA compatible (who cares about that whole private property think anyways) or, even better, you did but the <insert building part here> are .1 inches off spec.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Yep. Imagine if they scrapped the whole system, all the new stuff we'd see come up. I find the concept of having only one of everything is stupid. Companies should be able to make something similar to another company's product. It gives the consumer more to choose from.

Patents do nothing but hinder on further production of products since every company is walking on eggshells to avoid getting sued.
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Not all patents are bad ... Google seemed to be talking about software patents ... those probably should be abolished (although it might be useful to allow companies to copyright complex code or subroutines so they could not be copied ... they could be coded in a different manner though)

General patents should also go ... some of the patents are so generic in their descriptions they seem to cover all possible solutions to a problem (without actually identifying the solution themselves) ... it would be the equivalent of patenting respiration and being able to cover both lung based breathing and gill based breathing (although they are quite distinct and unique from each other)

Process patents should probably go too ... unless there is something truly unique or technically challenging about the patent or it is tied to a specific machine which is patentable in its own right

Actual unique patents should stay as that protects a company's willingness to invest costly R&D dollars and resources into complex technical patents (like pharmaceutical drugs) ... the amount of protected time for the patent should be reviewed though to make sure it is realistic and doesn't prevent competition down the road ... maybe give the company 3 years of unhindered market access followed by 5 years of FRAND licensing requirements ... after that it becomes fair game ... most companies should be able to recover their investment in that amount of time ;)
 
kllrnohj said:
Google has weight to enact reform? Since when? Last I checked congress *hates* Google because Google doesn't pay them any money and undermines the people that do pay them money.

Google doesn't have shit in the political scene. I'd love to see them get software patents destroyed, but you are way, *way* overestimating Google's political clout.
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Google makes political donations the same as every other company ... also given then number of wealthy people in their employ they probably donate more as individuals also ... I think the two biggest obstacles to reform are an ignorant Congress (they seem to want to fight over other issues right now and probably for the near and mid term future ... they are also mostly lawyers and may see this issue from a skewed perspective) and a few powerful companies who benefit directly from patents (probably drug and telecom companies most likely)
 
Google always says one thing and then does exactly what they say they don't do/like.

And what does Google know about making and patenting quality software anyway? They don't sell software the last time I checked. Almost all their products after Gmail became third rate also-ran crap and the only reason they are still afloat is by giving birth to this horrid internet advertising business model that no one likes.

All while at the same time publicly trying to blow smoke up people's ass about privacy and software patents - they must think we are all shills and tree hugging Linux users...

DON'T DO EVIL AMIRITE :mad:
 
Red Squirrel said:
Yep. Imagine if they scrapped the whole system, all the new stuff we'd see come up. I find the concept of having only one of everything is stupid. Companies should be able to make something similar to another company's product. It gives the consumer more to choose from.

Patents do nothing but hinder on further production of products since every company is walking on eggshells to avoid getting sued.
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Hardly. Without the exclusivity, there's no reason to innovate. Companies burn a lot of capital truely innovating. Other companies coming along, saving their money from not innovating so they can come out with a more polished idea of the innovated idea or cheaper version for the innovated idea.

If you reward the latter, that's all you'll get. Companies lined up to exploit the next innovation, but nobody innovating.

What's you're describing would take today's technology maybe make it cheaper and/or a little more polished. Then freeze it that way forever with nothing new coming out at all.
 
Vermillion said:
Funny how it only happened AFTER the trolling Apple has a possible injunction (which went in front of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday) against the Galaxy Nexus.

Funny how it only happened AFTER Apple started their crazed patent trolling.

The patent system in it's current form is seriously flawed and is doing nothing but hindering innovation.
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Yeah, We must have some Apple fanboys in the crowd.

Apple amassed patents that they should never have been issued in the first place.

(A patent for a rectangular flat device with rounded corners anyone?) Maybe they should the makers of this?

BAH118_S.jpg


Patents, by law, must be useful, Novel and Non-Obvious. There is nothing novel or non obvious in a patent like that, and it should never have been issued, not to mention th eissue of prior art. Didn't stop Apple from suing Samsung though...

So Apple started suing the world with their questionable patents.

The world then noticed they had to fight back or run the risk of being run out of business. This is when Google defensively started collecting patents in order to both defend its own Android ecosystem and its handset partners, and now they have fought back.

I say hurrah for Google in being the adults in the room. Let Apple realize that their methods aren't going to work, and then put this patent battle bs. behind us.
 
niconx said:
Patents are great, you can buy up a company's patents, fire all the employees, then go a trollin' for the monies. That's how we promote business here in America! It's all about the innovation and competition in a free market!
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I sincerely hope you are joking... :rolleyes:

Yes, Google did buy Motorola for their patents, but they are by no means shutting it down or firing all the employees.

They are treating Motorola like any investor looking to turn the company around and return it to profitability would. Remember, Motorola has been losing billions for the last few years.
 
In essence, to put this in a way some of you might understand it better.

The evil Apple dragon attacked the kingdom with patent trolling might.

Then the Google knight in shining armor appeared to fight the evil Apple dragon and save the kingdom.

The good Google knight knows full well that weapons are nasty things, and swears that he will lay down his arms once the evil Apple dragon is defeated.

Then they lived happily ever after.

THE END.
 
kllrnohj said:
Google has weight to enact reform? Since when? Last I checked congress *hates* Google because Google doesn't pay them any money and undermines the people that do pay them money.

Google doesn't have shit in the political scene. I'd love to see them get software patents destroyed, but you are way, *way* overestimating Google's political clout.
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But what about the time they stood up to China? They done told them whats up, didn't they?

China's now a free country and a Utopia. Everyone wants to live there and work there now, all thanks to Google.
 
Zarathustra[H];1039060784 said:
In essence, to put this in a way some of you might understand it better.

The evil Apple dragon attacked the kingdom with patent trolling might.

Then the Google knight in shining armor appeared to fight the evil Apple dragon and save the kingdom.

The good Google knight knows full well that weapons are nasty things, and swears that he will lay down his arms once the evil Apple dragon is defeated.

Then they lived happily ever after.

THE END.
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Keep on dreaming the good dream. Google will never put down their weapons, lol.
 
Azhar said:
Keep on dreaming the good dream. Google will never put down their weapons, lol.
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I guess time will tell.

To date I have only ever seen them sue defensively.

If they turn around and try to use these patents against Windows Phone, or Nokia or something like that without first being provoked by a lawsuit from Microsoft or Nokia, then you will have been right.

I don't get that vibe from Google though.

Time will tell.
 
I keep wanting to hit "Like" on some comments.... but I suppose that would violate some Facebook patent, doh! :cool:

Funny how the patent and copyright system worked just fine for 200+ years, until Ronny Ray-gun "deregulated" it and everything went to shit. :rolleyes:

Simply return the system to it's 1979 structure, and pay the extra to have serious professionals re-assess all patents granted after the "de-provments", voiding any that are bullshit. :eek:

Then in the future, the next time some idiot politician says it needs revamping.... beat his fucking face in. :p
 
Vermillion said:
Funny how it only happened AFTER the trolling Apple has a possible injunction (which went in front of the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit yesterday) against the Galaxy Nexus.

Funny how it only happened AFTER Apple started their crazed patent trolling.

The patent system in it's current form is seriously flawed and is doing nothing but hindering innovation.
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Not against them doing it, just find it funny that they come out saying they don't like it.

If it's the only way Apple will learn then I'm all for it.
 
xX_Jack_Carver_Xx said:
I keep wanting to hit "Like" on some comments.... but I suppose that would violate some Facebook patent, doh! :cool:

Funny how the patent and copyright system worked just fine for 200+ years, until Ronny Ray-gun "deregulated" it and everything went to shit. :rolleyes:

Simply return the system to it's 1979 structure, and pay the extra to have serious professionals re-assess all patents granted after the "de-provments", voiding any that are bullshit. :eek:

Then in the future, the next time some idiot politician says it needs revamping.... beat his fucking face in. :p
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This.
 
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