"Apart from a few patents listed, we hold a large arsenal of patents that we won't rule out using offensively against both developers AND users of open OR closed source software."
As a software developer and user, I'm not entirely comforted....
"Over time, we intend to expand the set of Google’s patents covered by the pledge to other technologies."
Now that's not a specific promise, so you can argue how much it should count for. But if you take it at face value, it seems reasonable to expect that they will be adding to the list.
By comparison to other companies that have offered a blanket promise to not sue Open Source software over any patents, a promise that only covers a vanishingly small subset of a company's patents seems woefully inadequate.
Is that common? I thought most of those things were limited to specific "fields", (which usually translates into a specific list of specific versions of specific packages).
Not just that - they can also terminate the pledge even if you don't sue Google, but "directly profit" from such a suit, which seems fairly open ended.
This is just a start and I would point out that the MapReduce patents may be their most valuable from a "core business" perspective. This is very positive.
Map reduce is a relatively old google tech, the world and his dog knows, uses, and deploys it. Companies can face an uphill battle enforcing patents on widely used technology (too many large entrenched users with patents of their own come to the fore to defend cases and provide war chests to others).
The newer patents on tech like glass and machine learning are what are particularly concerning for todays startups, many of who are venturing into these areas, and these are nowhere to be seen in this agreement. The recent patents also have the longest shelf life and the most potential for nipping competitors "in the bud".
Unless you are engaged in the multinational legal goings on concerning smartphone patents you'd have to be delusional to think that this announcement has anything to do with you personally.
If you're a startup, and you're planning to grow bigger in any areas of software/hardware/services that google covers (which, to be fair, these days is a very large range of areas), its definitely something to be thinking about.
Google is becoming an entrenched company, they will eventually (or sooner) go from an innovative market position to a defensive one, and thats when patents start to look really juicy to the bean counters.
Also, if you're a developer working for a large google competitor, you may also have reason to fear at least for your job (which is quite personal).
"Apart from a few patents listed, we hold a large arsenal of patents that we won't rule out using offensively against both developers AND users of open OR closed source software."
As a software developer and user, I'm not entirely comforted....