Google has pledged not to sue companies with open-source software that uses technology described in 10 Google patents, unless the internet giant is attacked first.

Google called it the Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge: “We pledge not to sue any user, distributor or developer of open-source software on specified patents, unless first attacked.”

Duane Valz, Google's senior patent counsel, announced the pledge in a blog entry. Open platforms face a growing amount of patent attacks, he explained, which pushes companies to buy more and more patents to defend themselves.

The pledge is Google's way to protect innovation fostered by open-source technology.

The 10 patents the company identified initially all have to do with MapReduce, its computing model for processing large data sets. MapReduce was the basis for Hadoop, currently the most popular open-source technology for using server clusters for data analytics applications.

“Over time, we intend to expand the set of Google's patents covered by the pledge to other technologies,” Valz wrote. Google hopes the pledge will serve as a model for the industry and encourage others to do something similar.

Benefits of the pledge, according to Google, are transparency, breadth (the pledge is not confined to a specific project or license), defensive protection (it is only terminated if Google is sued) and durability (it remains in force for the life of the patents).

This is not a way for Google to step away from pursuing patent reform in the US. “We continue to support patent reform that would improve patent quality and reduce excessive litigation,” Valz wrote.