Google promises not to wield its patent armoury - unless attacked first

Mutually assured patent destruction to anyone that has a go first

Google has promised not to deploy its patent war chest in anger - unless it is attacked first.

In its freshly announced open patent non-assertion pledge (OPN), Duane Valz, senior patent counsel at the computing giant, has promised that the company will not wield its growing patent portfolio against rival companies, except in self-defence.

"While open platforms have faced growing patent attacks, requiring companies to defensively acquire ever more patents, we remain committed to an open internet - one that protects real innovation and continues to deliver great products and services," wrote Valz in a blog posting.

"We pledge not to sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on specified patents, unless first attacked," he added.

However, the pledge will initially cover just ten patents before it is selectively extended.

"We've begun by identifying ten patents relating to MapReduce, a computing model for processing large data sets first developed at Google - open-source versions of which are now widely used. Over time, we intend to expand the set of Google's patents covered by the pledge to other technologies," wrote Valz.

While it is unclear how far the pledge will eventually extend, Valz said that if it were adopted industry-wide it would have a number of benefits in terms of transparency, the breadth of technologies that could be covered, "defensive protection", and durability.

"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... The Pledge remains in force for the life of the patents, even if we transfer them," wrote Valz.

Google's pledge would build on past efforts by companies like IBM and Red Hat, he continued, and the work of the Open Invention Network, of which Google is a member. "It also complements our efforts on co-operative licensing, where we're working with like-minded companies to develop patent agreements that would cut down on lawsuits."

"In addition to these industry-driven initiatives, we continue to support patent reforms that would improve patent quality and reduce excessive litigation," wrote Valvz.