Google has donated 79 additional patents to a list of “safe” patents in an effort to accelerate the pace of innovation in computing which could ultimately lead to better products and services at lower cost. The new patents cover a range of software used to operate data centers, including middleware, distributed storage management, distributed database management and alarm monitoring.
Google senior patent counsel Duane Valz announced the pledge via a blog post on the company’s open source blog. In it, the search giant noted they acquired the patents in question from IBM and CA Technologies, two companies that were among the first to make open source patent pledges.
The search giant opted to take the moral high ground back in March with the creation of the Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge, a commitment not to sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on specific patents (unless sued first).
To date, the patents that have been included in the pledge have been generally related to “back-end” technologies: servers, data centers and the like. Google highlighted the fact that open source software is also transforming the development of consumer products that are used every day. That that end, Google said they plan to add additional patents to the pledge covering those sorts of technologies.
Any method to reduce patent litigation at this state is a welcomed gesture as patent trolls and continued legal disputes between high profile tech companies are causing headaches on everyone involved.
via Google donates 79 additional patents to open patent pledge – TechSpot.
