Google launches online portal to buy patents

Washington: Google has announced an experimental program, 'Patent Purchase Promotion', that will allow it to buy patents from businesses and other patent holders who desire to sell.

Google says the new 'Patent Purchase Promotion' will be launched next month in an attempt to remove confrontations with the patent market that is filled with lawsuits and patent trolls.

According to TechCrunch, patent holders will be able to essentially list the patents they have for sale on the new online portal and set their own prices.

Google says that it will start operation of the new online portal on 8 May 2015 and will be available till 22 May 2015.

The portal will only open to U.S. patent submissions.

Google pointed out that the new online portal is only an experiment, which refers to Google's program that once allowed employees to spend some portion of their time with the company working on unofficial projects that may or may not be continued or eventually translated into new lines of business.

This new online portal is Google's bid to get patents before they ended up with patent trolls who leverage their own portfolios of patents to generate revenue for their business at the cost of others in the industry.

Also, Google has not made it clear if this is a one-time thing or a system that will return in later months or years.