These types of agreements might mean that we move from "software patents held by tech giants" to "software patents held by a cartel of tech giants". That would be worse.

An agreement like this might avoid the next high-profile lawsuit, but instead of fixing the patent system it's tapering over the most visible symptom, creating a patent oligopoly in the process.

Maybe I'm seeing things, but I'm just having Google's ongoing anti-poaching scandal fresh in mind.