Google, Canon form alliance
GoogleInc. and Canon Inc., two of the top recipients of U.S. patents last year, created a program they say can help limit some future infringement claims.
Participating companies pledge that if they sell some of their patents, all members of the group automatically get a royalty-free licence to them, the alliance, known as the License on Transfer Network, said in a statement Wednesday.
The goal is to limit instances where large technology companies sell patents to licensing firms whose main objective is to demand royalties and file-infringement suits. While only six companies have committed to joining the program, Google officials point to an open-source patent pledge about a year ago that started with a similar-sized group and grew to 900 members.
“The hope is people will see the benefits of the network effect here and the cycle of selling patents to licensing companies will end,” said Eric Schulman, legal director of Google’s patent team.
Other participants are business-software maker Sap AG, Internet retailer Newegg Inc., data-storage company Dropbox Inc., and Asana Inc., a software maker started by Facebook Inc. co- founder Dustin Moskovitz. Together, the six companies in the program own almost 300,000 patents, Schulman said.
The License on Transfer Network “will be a nobrainer for startups” who want to limit their exposure to lawsuits, said Moskovitz, whose company developed a program to allow teams to collaborate on projects.