Google’s one patent on network Quality of Service, US Patent #7142536, isn’t very neutral:
The present invention provides efficient and effective quality of service for information that is time sensitive (e.g., real time data)…In one embodiment of the present invention time sensitive information is cut through routed on a virtual channel and pre-empts non time sensitive information. In one embodiment a communication path probe is cut through routed via intermediate network devices to establish a communication path before other information is communicated from a originating source to a final destination…
It’s also pretty incoherent as it doesn’t appear to work in any of the presented embodiments; dropping TCP packets because they’re too old doesn’t accomplish anything but a retransmission.