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27 August 2014Patents

Google adds patents to non-assertion pledge

Google has expanded a portfolio of patents that it has pledged not to assert against other companies, adding more than 100 to the list.

The search engine has added 152 patents in the third time it has expanded the portfolio. Its bid not to assert the patents is known as the Open Patent Non-Assertion (OPN) Pledge.

Google said the latest additions covered patents related to encryption technology. It brings the total number of patents in the list to 245.

“Just over a year ago, we announced the OPN Pledge committing not to sue any user, distributor, or developer of open source software on specified patents, unless first attacked,” the search engine said in a statement yesterday (August 26).

It added: “Our goal was to encourage pro-competitive, defensive uses of patents to support open  source innovation”.

Google’s implementation of the OPN Pledge came at the height of numerous patent battles across the US.

Several shell companies with large patent portfolios that they do not use, sometimes referred to as “patent trolls”, have been faced with criticism for filing aggressive and frivolous lawsuits.

But Google said at the time that it believed free or open source software was a “very important tool” for fostering innovation.

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