Google has recently been taking a hard line on the US patent system, claiming that it over-rewards the work of coming up with an idea while taxing those who do the work of actually implementing it. The company also takes issue with excessive patent litigation from so-called "patent trolls," and now Google is encouraging companies to work together to cross-license patents to help cut down on frivolous lawsuits. On a new site that Google launched today, the company outlines four different, royalty-free patent licensing agreements that it believes will help protect participants from patent trolls.

It's also asking for interested parties to take a survey and submit feedback on its proposals to help determine which of the approaches it outlined is the most interesting to potential participants. Google's looking to collect feedback on the issue by April 9th, though it's not yet clear what the next steps will be following that deadline. Similarly, it's not yet clear how willing companies will be to work with Google on this initiative, though we imagine many will find Google the lesser evil when compared to patent trolls.