This is fantastic news and something I really hope every other major tech company starts to do. Maybe they finally realized that the money they hemorrhage to their legal departments can be better served elsewhere.
I agree to an extent, but what happens to the smaller tech companies that have few or no patents to cross-license? I fear that if the "patent wars" are ended by cross-licensing agreements between big players, no one influential will be left to push patent reform.
Fully agree -- no one else has (or rather very few have) the power to get in on this kind of agreement. That will encourage significantly higher barriers to entry, and discourage real systemic patent reform.
Does anyone actually think that Google and Samsung won't enforce the shared patents? They'll have immensely more enforcement power, so why wouldn't they? If anything, software patent wars are going to get worse.
Er, nothing has happened yet. Write back when someone actually sues someone?
This doesn't really change anything. It's patent cross-licensing, not some shell company created to house the combined patents. They probably already had a more-limited one for just Android-covering patents.
Rockstar Bidco, owned by Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Ericsson and Blackberry.
They use this legal vehicle to create shell companies armed with ex-Nortel patents to attack Android manufacturers and Google itself.
So they (Apple) very much play this game, and this evolution can be seen as a response to the threat that Rockstar Bidco poses.
Software patents are bad all around: given their infantile lifespan they sure have caused a lot of trouble already and their offensive usage will really hamper anyone not protected by a big company.
These types of agreements might mean that we move from "software patents held by tech giants" to "software patents held by a cartel of tech giants". That would be worse.
An agreement like this might avoid the next high-profile lawsuit, but instead of fixing the patent system it's tapering over the most visible symptom, creating a patent oligopoly in the process.
Maybe I'm seeing things, but I'm just having Google's ongoing anti-poaching scandal fresh in mind.
Nothing systemic has changed. It's just a little harder for Apple to be litigious with Samsung and Google, that's all. There are still plenty of other players in the patent lawsuit business.
Everyone worried about this agreement somehow being used offensively against other companies should chill. Samsung has similar agreement with IBM and Sony, which I believe have been in #1 and #3 spot in US patents granted for last decade or so.
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[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 44.3 ms ] threadDoes anyone actually think that Google and Samsung won't enforce the shared patents? They'll have immensely more enforcement power, so why wouldn't they? If anything, software patent wars are going to get worse.
This doesn't really change anything. It's patent cross-licensing, not some shell company created to house the combined patents. They probably already had a more-limited one for just Android-covering patents.
If you're supporting them, you are by proxy supporting and funding patent-trolling and global abuse of software-patents.
Apple are the reason others have to resolve to (bad) means like this. I'd hardly call them out as an example to follow.
They use this legal vehicle to create shell companies armed with ex-Nortel patents to attack Android manufacturers and Google itself.
So they (Apple) very much play this game, and this evolution can be seen as a response to the threat that Rockstar Bidco poses.
Software patents are bad all around: given their infantile lifespan they sure have caused a lot of trouble already and their offensive usage will really hamper anyone not protected by a big company.
An agreement like this might avoid the next high-profile lawsuit, but instead of fixing the patent system it's tapering over the most visible symptom, creating a patent oligopoly in the process.
Maybe I'm seeing things, but I'm just having Google's ongoing anti-poaching scandal fresh in mind.
Samsung+Sony cross-license in 2004 http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press_Archive/200412/04-12...
Samsung+IBM cross-license in 2011 http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/33588.wss
Apple broke into top 50 in the ranking starting about 2 - 3 years ago.