Google's Open Source Pledge - Don't Be Evil?
135"Google is aiming to fight back against so-called patent trolls, announcing Thursday on its Open Source blog that it's taking part in a self-designed Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge (OPN).
Going forward, this means that the company will take 10 of its patents and pledge "not to sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on [those] specified patents, unless first attacked." Google goes on to explain what it means by "first attacked": "The Pledge may be terminated, but only if a party brings a patent suit against Google products or services, or is directly profiting from such litigation."
Google is doing something interesting, that may pave the way for other patent holders to do the same. They're promising not to sue if other developers create something based on 10 (more in the future) of its patents, which would be great for innovation.
But...is this too good to be true? Could Google's pledge be turned around in their favor? Tim thinks so! What do you think?
*Read more from Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/google-patent-pledge_n_2978944.html
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