Google has added 152 patents to the list of ones you can copy in your own open-source version and are covered by its OPN Pledge, whereby Google won't sue unless it is sued first.

The patents have been added to a list started in 2013 with a promise by Google not to sue developers who created their own open-source version of MapReduce. At its inception in march 2013 only eight patents, all concerned with MapReduce, were covered by the Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge. More patents, concerned with middleware, alarm monitoring, distributed storage management and distributed database management were added last August. After the most recent additions, 245 Google patents are now covered in its list of Pledged Patents.

The latest post about the OPN Pledge on the Google+ Google Developers page, says Google’s goal was

“to encourage pro-competitive, defensive uses of patents to support open-source innovation.”

It reports that the 152 patents that have been added relate to technologies that help deliver fast, secure experiences on the web, including encryption, XML parsing and prefetching and notes that five additional patents related to the MapReduce data-processing technology created at Google are in the list.

Google first promised not to sue when all the major software companies were counter-suing each other for various patent infringements. Even though this situation has now eased, Google has continued to expand the list of patents about which it won’t sue.

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