Google has created a new patent cross-licensing effort in the interest of stemming litigation within the burgeoning Android ecosystem. It's called PAX, which means "peace" in Latin. Here are the key details from Google's official blog post on PAX:
Under PAX, members grant each other royalty-free patent licenses covering Android and Google Applications on qualified devices. This community-driven clearinghouse, developed together with our Android partners, ensures that innovation and consumer choice—not patent threats—will continue to be key drivers of our Android ecosystem. PAX is free to join and open to anyone.
PAX members currently include Google, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics,Foxconn Technology Group, HMD Global, HTC, Coolpad, BQ, and Allview. The members collectively own more than 230,000 patents worldwide. As more companies join, PAX will bring even more patent peace and value to its members through more freedom to innovate.
It's important to note a couple of things here. One, there are indeed some big names signed onto PAX at launch, but they represent only a small percentage of Android OEMs. As the blog notes, the Android ecosystem now has more than 400 partner manufacturers and 500 carriers, with greater than 4,000 devices created in just the past year. There is plenty of room for PAX's ranks to grow, and no doubt they will as word gets out.
Don't expect Microsoft, which at one point was reportedly earning $2 billion per year licensing its patents to Android device makers, to join up.
Second, PAX's launch companies may possess more than 230,000 patents but that doesn't mean all of them will pertain to PAX or Android. It also appears that PAX will focus on software, not hardware patents.
PAX is not Google's first patent pool. Past initiatives include the LOT Network, which focuses on combating patent trolls. Google also participates in long-standing patent pools such as the Open Invention Network.
Google has set up a website for PAX, but it contains very little specific information. In fact, visitors are asked to submit a request if they want to see a copy of the PAX license. The site offers no guarantee one will be received, but in the case one is, asks that recipients keep it confidential save for employees, board members and attorneys, or if compelled by law.
While still in its early days, the emergence of PAX is good news not only for the Android partner and developer ecosystem, but for enterprises. Despite Android's nearly 90 percent smartphone market share, it has lagged Apple dramatically in the enterprise market for a number of reasons, chief among them the Android ecosystem's rampant fragmentation and a resulting perception (or reality) of inferior security.
While most every iOS device gets updated with new operating system versions within a matter of weeks or even days, that's never been the case with Android, with many carriers taking years to make updates available to customers. This makes BYOD initiatives much tougher to do for enterprise IT with Android devices, given users may be running earlier, less secure versions of Android.
Google has taken significant steps in the past year to make Android more enterprise-friendly, adding an array of security features in Android 7.0 (Nougat), which was released in August. (Go here for a comprehensive rundown). Google also sees enterprise overall as its next big path to growth, and has invested accordingly. Expect Google to spend plenty of energy educating the market on where Android stands as an enterprise solution over the course of this year and beyond.
While PAX doesn't draw a direct line toward spurring enterprise adoption of Android, if successful it can only help. An Android partner ecosystem focused more on creating new innovations than fending off intellectual property claims could help reduce fragmentation and thus coalesce around enterprise mobility opportunities, which are already vast.
There's a broader view to consider, as well. "A digital economy built around a new generation of interactive, high-value business and consumer apps and service orchestrations calls for levels of shared and integrated technology operations that massively surpass that of the Web," says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Andy Mulholland. "The recent battle around protecting patents on smartphone features has shown just how difficult it can be to simultaneously add patented features while in parallel allowing user interactivity with other technology and apps."
"Multiply that many times over the next several years as hundreds of successful startups add their claims to those of the established vendors in the rush to win a share of the new digital markets and the results will be at best chaotic, and at worst could lead to users find their purchases are banned from use," he adds. "Revising both patent and commercial law may not be easy but its very necessary."
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