04.21.12
Google Should Follow Twitter’s Lead on Patent Mutilation
Summary: Twitter’s latest move (making patents self-destruct upon offensive use) inspires many across the Web, including senior people at Google
TWITTER received some good karma for its latest patent moves. As one person said in Twitter, “By and large, we software developers don’t like software patents. Given that, twitter’s patent agreement is a recruiting tool, period.”
“Google’s Matt Cutts responded to Twitter’s move in an encouraging way. “Here is a VC’s response to the patent pledge from Twitter. It’s the story of a VC who invested in a company (with a patent) that went bankrupt and then their patent was used to sue 2 other companies he invested in. Another lesson about the absurdity of patents, right?
Google’s Matt Cutts responded to Twitter’s move in an encouraging way. “The more I read about Twitter’s “defensive uses only” patent agreement,” he says, “the more I like it.” So can Google follow suit? How about Red Hat? Cutts, who somewhat of a Google celebrity, links to the New York Times blog, which can be found here. Suffice to say, patents boosters are offended by this decision from Twitter. Less for them (the parasites), more for technologists. █