"The answer "Hey, we're working on getting all our patents into our patent pledge" would totally satisfy me. But let's be honest: It's never going to happen.
"
It's not supposed to happen?
The same way that one does not have to give up all their worldly possessions to be a good catholic.
"Patent licensing that only benefits people using Google tech is exactly the sort of hypocrisy Google and others accuse Microsoft of."
Except that's not what it is, and spinning it this way just shows you keep trying to find ways to hate it.
It's patent that benefits people using the code google gave them.
If you take the code from a google patented project, and use it, derive from it, whatever, you end up with patent protection.
Which, as i said, 99% of people do, including Microsoft, so your next example is simply wrong.
These companies simply don't usually do what you are saying is the issue.
IE
" Obviously, since Microsoft's OS would implement it's own mobile device tech, the sorts of protections afforded by Google via Apache licensing probably doesn't protect Microsoft from a suit by Google, for example."
Is neither obvious, nor correct. In fact, they just use our implementation in the cases i'm aware of.
The last time someone came to us and said "i want to use the patents but not the code", was webm. So we created a spec, and gave patent license to all implementations of the spec, google created or not.
Can you provide a real example instead of theoretical cases? I can state, affirmatively, that anyone who has come to us with a serious need, we've solved it, AFAIK.
Can you provide a counterexample?
"What is the harm in Google pledging all of their patents, if they have no intention to ever use them offensively?"
What's the benefit?
There are lots of possible harms, like the inability to use them defensively in certain situations (no pledge is perfect, it's not possible to create something without loopholes), the inability to maintain the status quo of patent peace, etc. There's a lot of risk here.
You seem to have this black and white view where this is zero risk, and it's just silly to me.
It's like saying: What's the harm in destroying all of the US nuclear weapons if they never plan on using them offensively?
You act as if this is a zero risk proposition, but it's not.
The benefit is being able to trust they won't be used offensively. Being able to trust those patents were open for use, and not at risk of being weaponized, is a major benefit.
You have to bear in mind, for probably 99% of Google's patents (as I said, we don't really have an exact official number including acquisitions), Google is entirely capable of either selling them to Intellectual Ventures et al. or going patent troll themselves when the market turns against them (or their business model becomes illegal).
The fact that so far Google has been accommodating with a small number of patents and currently claims to be against using patent litigation. What Google engineers preach and what Google legal does (see also: support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership) are two different things. In fact, much like Microsoft, as we can see with a combination of open sourcing and patent litigation.
It's not supposed to happen? The same way that one does not have to give up all their worldly possessions to be a good catholic.
"Patent licensing that only benefits people using Google tech is exactly the sort of hypocrisy Google and others accuse Microsoft of."
Except that's not what it is, and spinning it this way just shows you keep trying to find ways to hate it.
It's patent that benefits people using the code google gave them. If you take the code from a google patented project, and use it, derive from it, whatever, you end up with patent protection.
Which, as i said, 99% of people do, including Microsoft, so your next example is simply wrong.
These companies simply don't usually do what you are saying is the issue. IE " Obviously, since Microsoft's OS would implement it's own mobile device tech, the sorts of protections afforded by Google via Apache licensing probably doesn't protect Microsoft from a suit by Google, for example."
Is neither obvious, nor correct. In fact, they just use our implementation in the cases i'm aware of. The last time someone came to us and said "i want to use the patents but not the code", was webm. So we created a spec, and gave patent license to all implementations of the spec, google created or not.
Can you provide a real example instead of theoretical cases? I can state, affirmatively, that anyone who has come to us with a serious need, we've solved it, AFAIK. Can you provide a counterexample?
"What is the harm in Google pledging all of their patents, if they have no intention to ever use them offensively?"
What's the benefit? There are lots of possible harms, like the inability to use them defensively in certain situations (no pledge is perfect, it's not possible to create something without loopholes), the inability to maintain the status quo of patent peace, etc. There's a lot of risk here.
You seem to have this black and white view where this is zero risk, and it's just silly to me.
It's like saying: What's the harm in destroying all of the US nuclear weapons if they never plan on using them offensively?
You act as if this is a zero risk proposition, but it's not.