Google Pledges Patents To Open-Source Software Cause

On August 8, 2013, Google announced it would add 79 patents to its "Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge" (OPN Pledge). The OPN Pledge was initiated in March 2013, when Google pledged not to sue open-source developers, users or developers over its patented MapReduce programming model, except against parties that attack Google first. Google listed 10 specific software patents in the OPN Pledge that cover the MapReduce technology, which is used for processing large sets of data. At that time, Google had explained that it was continuing to acquire patents as a defensive measure, pointing to the increasing number of patent attacks on Android. However, said Google, it was initiating the OPN Pledge as part of its commitment to an open Internet. The key provisions of OPN Pledge allow the patent holder to determine which patents they wish to pledge to use defensively, and require the non-assertion and defensive-use-only terms of the OPN Pledge to remain in force for the life of the patents, even if the patents are sold or transferred. Google said that it hoped that the OPN Pledge would be a model for the industry. The recently-pledged 79 patents "cover software used to efficiently operate data centers, including middleware, distributed storage management, distributed database management, and alarm monitoring," patents which were acquired from IBM and CA Technologies. In its announcement, Google further hinted that although the patents listed in the OPN Pledge so far relate to “back-end” technologies, additional extensions to patents related to consumer products may be forthcoming. Summary by: Cheryl Cheung