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As a whole Google can probably be considered a pretty philanthropic company. Many of their projects and goals revolve around improving the world, whether it be delivering the Internet to people in countries that typically have difficulty getting access via Project Loon or any number of their Moonshot Projects for that matter. While all of these projects are great their biggest hurdle is time; the time that it takes from one of these projects to come to fruition can be years, or may even be decades depending on the project in question. So how about a small-scale project that’s set to make a big impact, all while taking very little time in the scope of things? That’s sort of the idea behind Google’s latest philanthropic deal, and it’s all in an effort to help out startups.
Citing the fact that Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google in Susan Wojcicki’s garage, the company is now trying to help out other startups that might be in a similar situation but don’t know where to take their ideas for the next step. Ostensibly one of the biggest hurdles a startup might come across is protecting their ideas via the legal patent system, a system who’s convoluted and archaic nature has led to a swath of patent trolls waiting to pounce on anyone who dares to steal “their ideas.” Simply put patent trolls are people who patent ideas without the intention of ever making a product with those ideas, only to sit and wait for someone else to do it so they can make royalties off said product. Google doesn’t care for this practice and wants to help keep 50 fortunate startups from having to go through this mess.
Google is giving access to a selection of their portfolio of patents for the first 50 startups that sign up, with each startup eligible to receive 2 patents a piece. The patents will be decided based on the startup’s ideas and a selection of 3-5 of Google’s patents in which the startup may chose 2. In addition to this Google is opening up its patents for purchase and partnership via the LOT network, or License on Transfer. Those looking to participate in this program should look no further than the PDF located below from Google’s site which gives all the instructions needed to enter.