The global internet began with an incredible promise: a shared resource that everyone could access wherever they lived. Over the last few years, this ideal has been strained to the breaking point as governments around the world have adopted conflicting regulations that are fragmenting the internet to the detriment of people everywhere.

That’s why it’s great to see countries coming together today to launch the Declaration for the Future of the Internet (DFI). Through this effort, allies across the public and private sectors will work together to protect the importance of the global web, including by opposing shutdowns and other “efforts to splinter the global Internet.”

Digital fragmentation impacts everyone using the internet. As conflicting regulations proliferate, people’s access to content, privacy protections, and freedom to transact and communicate increasingly vary depending on where they are located. Digital fragmentation has become a significant barrier to international trade, with a particularly pernicious effect on small businesses, which lack the resources to navigate an array of conflicting rules. And it discriminates against smaller, developing countries, as new products become harder to launch and scale on a fragmented Internet to all markets.

The DFI provides a path to address the most urgent threats to the global internet. In particular, we’re seeing a number of governments take actions to crack down on the free flow of information and ideas, increase government surveillance, and restrict access to cross-border internet services under the banner of “cyber-sovereignty.”

The DFI joins the EU-US Trade & Tech Council and the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework as important fora where like-minded partners can join together to address cross-border challenges. We hope this work will be grounded in a few key principles:

• First, governments should strive to agree on common standards to guide the development of new rules for digital technologies, so that consumers have consistent protections across borders and access to digital tools.
• Second, governments should strive to increase interoperability between national digital rules, as we’ve seen with the US-EU Data Privacy Framework.
• Third, governments should commit to intergovernmental regulatory dialogue to ensure that new rules strengthen shared values.
• And fourth, governments should abide by core open trade principles like non-discriminatory approaches to regulation that don’t single out foreign companies.

The private sector also plays an important role in maintaining the global internet. That’s especially true in times of crisis, as security teams work to disrupt disinformation campaigns, cyber attacks and other online threats. Since Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, our teams have been working around the clock to support people in Ukraine through our products, defend against cybersecurity threats, and surface high-quality, reliable information. We are committed to partnering with governments and civil society through the Declaration to disrupt disinformation campaigns and foreign malign activity, while ensuring people around the world are able to access trustworthy information.

Ultimately, the cross-border availability of secure technologies and digital services – coupled with forward-looking decisions by governments – can protect access to information everywhere and ensure that the enormous benefits resulting from the global internet are not lost. We stand ready to support the DFI’s mission to promote an open, secure, and reliable internet for all.

Over the years, Google has worked to ensure that the United States patent system continued to spur new inventions and technologies. A healthy patent system incentivizes and rewards the most original and creative inventors — while helping others build on existing ideas and avoiding frivolous litigation. Supporting that balanced approach, we were one of the first companies to pledge not to sue any user, distributor, or developer of open-source software on specified patents, unless first attacked. We helped found the License on Transfer (LOT) Network, which shields its members from being sued over patents that other members have sold to patent trolls. And we worked in collaboration with others to create a repository of hard-to-find “prior art” documents to improve the patenting process, resulting in higher quality patents.

We have also invested heavily in patenting our engineers’ inventions in advanced technologies. Our tens of thousands of engineers have authored over 42,000 home-grown patents and we have licensed hundreds of thousands more at fair value. We are proud of our patented innovations like the ability to predict traffic or extend battery life. And we have sold hundreds of patents to smaller companies interested in bolstering their own portfolios.

But we are concerned that America’s patent system is increasingly failing to promote the cause of innovation and progress. The quality of patents issued in the U.S is declining. And, after a few years where earlier reforms reduced abusive patent litigation, it’s back with force, with 46% more lawsuits in 2021 than in 2018. Patent trolls and opportunistic companies have begun to weaponize patents against their rivals, hindering both competition and innovation, and ultimately harming the quality of new products. America’s prized “culture of innovation” is being undermined by a “culture of litigation.”

Reversing the rising tide of wasteful patent litigation

Aggressive litigants waste valuable court resources unsuccessfully trying to stretch patents beyond recognition. And prolific patent trolls wage litigation shakedown campaigns with low-quality patents that are later found to be invalid, wasting time and resources that could have been spent on developing new products.

Google is a resourceful company with a strong record of fighting overreaching patent claims, and we can defend our users and products. But many smaller companies, especially those producing nascent technologies, cannot afford the risk and expense of these lawsuits, which raise costs for consumers and stifle companies’ ability to bring products to market. That is why we are calling for more support for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), reforms to how the judicial system handles patent claims, and Congressional changes to address patent abuse.

Investing in the Patent Office

Each year, the PTO approves more than half of the more than 600,000 patent applications it receives, working to balance incentives for investment and freedom to innovate. Evaluating those applications is a monumental task and in recent years the agency has not had the tools it needs to do its job right. Technology can help, and the PTO is working on AI solutions to streamline the process. But its hard-working employees remain under-resourced to keep up with advancing technology. This results in invalid patents getting issued to inventors, which undermines their ability to protect technology confidently. Others face the cost and hassle of defending infringement claims against patents that should never have been granted in the first place. This isn’t fair for anyone except patent trolls.

Ending forum shopping

There are 677 federal district court judgeships in the United States. But many companies suing over patent claims are gaming the system. This forum shopping has gotten so out of hand that almost 25% of all US patent litigation is now being filed in a single courthouse. After a bipartisan request for action, Chief Justice John Roberts has committed to investigate the issue and push to restore the integrity of the judicial process.

Restoring Inter Partes Review

On top of all this, changes to PTO rules have weakened Inter Partes Review (IPR), the program that Congress created to help companies cost-effectively invalidate low-quality patents. Congress carefully constructed the IPR program to provide expert review of the small subset of patents with the greatest impact on our economy. But new PTO policies make it harder to use IPRs to invalidate patents in a cost-effective and streamlined way.

Preserving America’s culture of innovation

A series of steps would improve the current system, benefiting both innovation and consumers:

• At the United States Patent and Trademark Office, a new director is now at the helm, with a clear mandate to improve patent quality as set out in the Commerce Department’s Strategic Plan. To do so, the Office should work to ensure that the agency’s process for reviewing an application for a patent is robust, and that patents that shouldn’t have been granted can be promptly, efficiently, and effectively challenged. Of course, that will require giving the PTO the resources it needs. The PTO is funded by fees paid by patent applicants, and we support increasing fees for the largest patent filers, including Google. With the confirmation of PTO Director Kathi Vidal, this important work can finally begin.
• In the judiciary, the Supreme Court’s year-end report on the federal judiciary made the issue of forum shopping one of three topics of focus for 2022. As the review requested by the Chief Justice moves forward, we hope it urgently addresses the judicial imbalances caused by abusive forum shopping.
• Finally, before Congress, there is pending, bipartisan legislation that would help reduce abusive patent litigation. We are supportive of the goals of this bill, which would restore access to the Inter Partes Review program and increase transparency and accountability. It makes clear that the PTO is the most effective forum for reviewing patent validity, giving the Office the opportunity to double-check its own work in an efficient, expert, and cost-effective way. We and a broad cross-section of supporters rallied behind this program back in 2011 when it was enacted as part of the America Invents Act with resounding bipartisan support, and it’s time to live up to its original purpose.

With changes like these, we are optimistic that the patent system can get back to what it is intended to do: preserve the U.S. culture of innovation, advance the development of new technology, and reward entrepreneurs who are building new products that benefit American consumers and people around the world.