Matt Asay, whose views have become increasingly corporate as the recession has ground on, wrote yesterday that Google may be investing in open source as a patent dodge.
Of course, it wasn’t his opinion he was stating. He was just quoting the speculation of a Gartner analyst, Brian Prentice.
A politician couldn’t do that better. “I’m not saying my esteemed opponent is a duck. I’m just quoting an analyst who claims to have heard a quack.”
Fact is Google has been a long-time advocate of patent reform. And on this issue it is also, like the rest of the computer industry, a long-time loser.
Nothing Machiavellian is going on here. Google has been very honest about its views, and in its advocacy.
Google has lost this battle before because the pharmaceutical and medical device makers refuse to go along. Software patents are routinely issued that cover a wide range of programs. Drug and device patents cover specific compounds or devices. Their reach is more limited, and their protection more important in those industries.
This is a simple argument that has worked before. In the last Congress the House even passed a bill. The health care complex bottled it up. The present bills, HR 1260 and S. 515, have been passed by committee but have not come up for a vote. They won’t unless an agreement is reached with the medical supply folks. There is also a Republican substitute, S. 610, in the hopper. So far Phrma isn’t budging.
Now if patent reform is passed, and if I get a pony, might an open source substitute be allowable as mitigation in calculating damages? Maybe.
But that has nothing to do with why Google bought ON Technologies. That deal is about codec technology, about bandwidth efficiency, and about the ongoing standards process. If it’s an end-run around the patent office, it’s done to assure that future Web standards remain open source. That’s in everyone’s interest.
What Matt is really displaying here, in my view, is an assumption that since Google is large it must be evil. I have commented on that before, most recently at SmartPlanet a few weeks ago.
I have no doubt Google acts in its self-interest, as all companies and indeed all institutions and individuals generally do. But self-interest and evil are different things. Until Google crosses the line I’m not crossing them off my “nice” list.
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