Google the term “patent” and what do you get? A new regime from the search engine itself. According to Fiona Legere and Marissa Caldwell of McCarthy Tetrault, the technology behemoth has recently announced two new patent initiatives: a redo of Google Patents, the search tool of existing patent databases, and the Google Patent Starter Program, which gives away patents for free.
“Google insists that these initiatives are being done in an effort to improve the patent system for the technology industry and beyond,” say the authors, who note the question of whether the company is simply monopolizing patent rights remains to be seen. But “while the effects of Google’s patent initiatives remain unknown, they do signal the company’s, and by extension the technology industry’s, dissatisfaction with the current patent regime,” they explain.
