In the wake of the legal battle between Apple and Samsung, it was argued that the U.S. Patent Office had not been able to understand the technical implications of many patents it grants, and that the methods of the patent grant system need to be updated. Now, with the grant of a generalized patent for cloud OS systems to Google, these arguments seems quite valid.
The patent that has been granted to Google is very general in that it covers almost everything for “providing an operating system over a network to a local device.” This is vague and can be used to thwart any attempts from others who attempt to provide a similar OS in the future.
The patent virtually applies to every aspect of cloud OS which makes use of a browser-independent software. Google filed the patent back in 2009, two months ahead of its official launch of the Chrome OS. That is, Google bagged the patent because of its very own cloud OS.
Nonetheless, the contention remains that issuing such umbrella patents is a dangerous practice and can lead to numerous more legal feuds in the coming days. Any other vendor who tries to introduce a similar OS will be immediately in the fire-range of Google, which is not a very pleasant premonition.
You can read the patent, titled “Network based operating system across devices” over here.
Source: USPTO
Courtesy: Tom’s Hardware
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This is vague and can be used to thwart any attempts from others who attempt to provide a similar OS in the future.
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