The Nortel patents Google is bidding for would cover a number of mobile phone technologies
Google is bidding $900m to buy a tranche of 600 patents from the bankrupt telecoms company Nortel in a defensive move to protect itself against lawsuits from other companies with larger patent portfolios.
The bidding is not yet complete, which means that rivals such as Apple, Microsoft and BlackBerry maker RIM could still jump in with bigger bids for the patents, which Nortel says cover "a broad range of wires, wireless and digital communication technologies" - including 4G wireless, data networking, optical, voice, internet, internet service provider, semiconductors and other patents.
Success for Google, where Larry Page has once more taken over as chief executive, would bolster its position in defending itself against companies such as Oracle, which is suing it over aspects of the top-selling Android mobile operating system.
Some of the patents are already covered by cross-licensing agreements with Microsoft, which says that any sale will not affect their licensing because they are "perpetual, worldwide, and royalty-free" following a deal signed in 2006.
In a blogpost, Google said
However Google's claim that its relative youth is the reason for its comparatively small patent portfolio was challenged by Florian Mueller, who has analysed the back-and-forth of battles such as Google and Oracle. "Google tells less than half the story by attributing its weak patent portfolio to the company's young age. Their R&D [research and development] activity is still very narrow. Google still doesn't file many new patent applications per year as compared to its major rivals. That fact points to a major weakness in R&D," Mueller noted.
Google does not even rank in the top 50 US companies that filed patents in 2010.
Mueller added that the move indicates that an analysis he made in January - that Google's patent portfolio is too weak to protect Android from multiple lawsuits - is essentially true.
The auction is expected to go ahead in June, subject to US and Canadian court appeals, as part of a selloff of the intellectual and other property of the company, which fell into administration in January 2009.
Article From Guardian.co.uk – Creative Commons Licensing
The bidding is not yet complete, which means that rivals such as Apple, Microsoft and BlackBerry maker RIM could still jump in with bigger bids for the patents, which Nortel says cover "a broad range of wires, wireless and digital communication technologies" - including 4G wireless, data networking, optical, voice, internet, internet service provider, semiconductors and other patents.
Success for Google, where Larry Page has once more taken over as chief executive, would bolster its position in defending itself against companies such as Oracle, which is suing it over aspects of the top-selling Android mobile operating system.
Some of the patents are already covered by cross-licensing agreements with Microsoft, which says that any sale will not affect their licensing because they are "perpetual, worldwide, and royalty-free" following a deal signed in 2006.
In a blogpost, Google said
The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits. It's for these reasons that Google has long argued in favor of real patent reform, which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole.
But as things stand today, one of a company's best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories.A large patent portfolio is essential for companies operating in the mobile phone space, because the technology underlying handsets and mobile connections is highly complex and widely patented by different companies. Nokia is a notable leader in the mobile patent field, and has filed a number of patent claims against Apple - which are still unresolved. Owning patents in those fields can make the difference between effectively having to pay a rent to another company for success in mobile, and being able to make a zero-cost cross-licensing agreement with the other business.
However Google's claim that its relative youth is the reason for its comparatively small patent portfolio was challenged by Florian Mueller, who has analysed the back-and-forth of battles such as Google and Oracle. "Google tells less than half the story by attributing its weak patent portfolio to the company's young age. Their R&D [research and development] activity is still very narrow. Google still doesn't file many new patent applications per year as compared to its major rivals. That fact points to a major weakness in R&D," Mueller noted.
Google does not even rank in the top 50 US companies that filed patents in 2010.
Mueller added that the move indicates that an analysis he made in January - that Google's patent portfolio is too weak to protect Android from multiple lawsuits - is essentially true.
The auction is expected to go ahead in June, subject to US and Canadian court appeals, as part of a selloff of the intellectual and other property of the company, which fell into administration in January 2009.
Article From Guardian.co.uk – Creative Commons Licensing
interesant
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how this turns out. Google has some really good lawyers for sure.
ReplyDeleteToo large, did read actually lol
ReplyDelete