> putting the patents they control into a pool that everyone can join on the agreement that they never sue anyone for patent infringement, and giving everyone in the pool equal ownership of the patents in there.

That's an interesting idea! And they might even put some funds/legal help in there to help protect any member companies from patent suits by others. Then, if anyone is in this pool, they're protected by this NATO-like pact.

This kind of thing could kill software patents, if companies can join easily enough (e.g: Even without contributing patents).

This doesn't solve the problem of patent trolls, though.