Google announced the Patent Purchase Promotion, an experimental initiative to fight the phenomenon of patent trolling, the use of patents for the sole purpose of restricting competition and to obtain money through lawsuits or through agreements following threats of such actions. In this case, Google asked holders of American patents willing to sell them to submit their requests with the price. That’s meant to prevent them from ending up in the hands of patent trolls.

Patent trolling has become a major issue in recent years. There are companies that use patents to threaten lawsuits and obtain commercial agreements. For example, Microsoft has already made billions thanks to agreements made with the producers of Android devices after threatening them for alleged patent violations. Some companies exist just to make money by exploiting patents but without producing anything.

The Obama administration took an initiative against patent trolling but clearly Google is among those who believe that’s not enough. For this reason, the company decided to try this new experiment, opening a sort of experimental patent marketplace. Google prefers to pay people and companies that have created something new and prevent those patents from becoming weapons rather than risking having to throw money and other resources to fight patent trolls.

The Patent Purchase Promotion program will run between My 8 and 22, 2015, when the owners of American patents can communicate Google their willingness to sell. The company will evaluate the offers and in a few weeks will communicate which patents is interested in buying. The initiative provides that owners retain a license to use the patents but in the case of purchase Google will use them with no restrictions.

With this initiative, one of the most important companies in the world will surely get many new patents. This can be considered the lesser of two evils, given the risk that they might fall into the hands of patent trolls. It’s a consequence of a perversion of the patent system, which is supposed to stimulate investment in innovation allowing to enjoy their fruits but is often used for parasitic purposes. This hampers innovation and penalizes consumers, who end up having to buy many products at higher prices exactly because of the extra costs arising from patent trolls.