Re:Google accused of stealing balloon network tech behind Pr...
by rincebrain on Friday June 17, 2016 @05:09AM
(#11921475)
I don't think we can really make any informed remarks on these claims without more information.
We don't know:
* the NDA terms
* what the "trade secrets" Google is alleged to have taken/used are
* whether the patents are going to stand under scrutiny
* why they couldn't come to an agreement in the first place.
If I were in Google's position, I would probably have either paid them even a minorly extortionate value to come to a licensing agreement (to mitigate precisely this circumstance), or arranged a "clean room" to implement their Loon tech without anyone involved in the trade secrets having input (beyond the necessary "approve/disapprove" from some level of management above the team, since they allege the co-founders were covered by the NDA and knew trade secrets).
It's not impossible that Google is acting in poor faith here, but I don't think we can draw any conclusions until more information comes out.
We don't know:
* the NDA terms
* what the "trade secrets" Google is alleged to have taken/used are
* whether the patents are going to stand under scrutiny
* why they couldn't come to an agreement in the first place.
If I were in Google's position, I would probably have either paid them even a minorly extortionate value to come to a licensing agreement (to mitigate precisely this circumstance), or arranged a "clean room" to implement their Loon tech without anyone involved in the trade secrets having input (beyond the necessary "approve/disapprove" from some level of management above the team, since they allege the co-founders were covered by the NDA and knew trade secrets).
It's not impossible that Google is acting in poor faith here, but I don't think we can draw any conclusions until more information comes out.