I agree with you -- one man's "defensive" lawsuit is another's overbroad patent trolling -- but I agree more with the EFF. If Google is going to go for this kind of patent, then it would be good to see a firmer (and much larger) commitment to something like their "Open Patent Non-Assertion Pledge"[1].
I'd breathe easier about these crap patents if I knew they were functioning only as land mines for bad parties out there. Of course, they shouldn't exist in the first place and real patent trolls have nothing to worry about, since they produce nothing that you can countersue over in the first place...but the EFF is right that this is the right thing to do in this case. skore brings up a good point below[2] that it's not really about fairness. Google is a company that prides itself on being better than using "vague, overbroad" patents, so best to use that as leverage to make sure a big presence in the industry continues as a good(ish) actor and use that as a fixed point for continued change.
I'd breathe easier about these crap patents if I knew they were functioning only as land mines for bad parties out there. Of course, they shouldn't exist in the first place and real patent trolls have nothing to worry about, since they produce nothing that you can countersue over in the first place...but the EFF is right that this is the right thing to do in this case. skore brings up a good point below[2] that it's not really about fairness. Google is a company that prides itself on being better than using "vague, overbroad" patents, so best to use that as leverage to make sure a big presence in the industry continues as a good(ish) actor and use that as a fixed point for continued change.
[1] http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/google-adds-79-pa...
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6539746