Articles about Patents

Google CEO Larry Page on Monday outlined the importance Motorola has played in the foundation of Android and its growth across the world, and the role it will play moving forward. This is a repost of content that Page posted both in the official Google Blog and on his Google+ feed, but we all felt it was a very important statement about today's landmark acquisition, and that it should be read in its entirety.

Since its launch in November 2007, Android has not only dramatically increased consumer choice but also improved the entire mobile experience for users. Today, more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide--with over 550,000 devices now lit up every day--through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries. Given Android's phenomenal success, we are always looking for new ways to supercharge the Android ecosystem. That is why I am so excited today to announce that we have agreed to acquire Motorola.

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Google thoroughly rocked the smartphone world on Monday morning by announcing it will be acquiring Android phone maker Motorola Mobility for approximately $12.5 billion. Motorola Mobility has existed as a standalone entity for just 8 months, and has produced some of the most successful Android smartphones such as the first Droid with Verizon Wireless.

Most importantly, though, Motorola Mobility holds one of the most valuable wireless patent portfolios in the business, and this acquisition serves as a follow up to the Nortel Patent auction where Google placed bids, but lost out to a consortium of bidders that included Apple, EMC, Microsoft, Ericsson, Research in Motion, and Sony.

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Gasp. You read the headline right. Today, Apple won an injunction against major rival Samsung. A Dusseldorf court issued the injunction, which is preliminary.

Did I not write just a few hours ago claiming Apple is engaging in competition by litigation, rather than innovation? According to IDC, Samsung is Apple's biggest competitor in the tablet market. But rather than compete, the market leader has engaged in a campaign to block Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales just as the tablet launches in many countries around the world. What I find so surprising: How easily Apple is let off by bloggers and journalists for bullying behavior that would generate scathing headlines if Google or Microsoft was the protagonist.

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Apple's patent bullying continues -- competition by litigation rather than innovation. Today the US International Trade Commission agreed to investigate five patents Apple claims that HTC violates.

Perhaps Apple smells blood in the water, from an earlier, somewhat favorable ruling. The company sued HTC for patent infringement in March 2010; at the time, HTC was one of the largest -- if not the largest -- Android licensees. I called the lawsuit "competition by litigation" -- "where Apple hopes to scare off mobile manufacturers from licensing Android". Apple's lawsuit alleged HTC infringed 20 patents. It was really an attack on Google and Android and it seemed frivolous. Still, about a month ago, ITC ruled in Apple's favor on two of the 20 patents.

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In the matter of a few short hours on Wednesday night, Google's seemingly well-intentioned and cogent argument against its competitors vis a vis Android blew up in its face. In the fallout, the search giant now appears to be speaking out of both sides of its mouth and may have strengthened its competitors' claims against it.

See, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond argued that there's a "a hostile, organized campaign against Android" using patents he calls "bogus." This came just days after it lost its bid for a host of Nortel patents to a consortium of companies that included Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research in Motion, and Sony.

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"Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it", David Drummond, Google chief legal officer, writes in a blog post late yesterday afternoon. He's absolutely right.

For weeks I've been thinking about writing a commentary about how Apple has become a patent bully -- that its behavior answers an ongoing question of discussion going on for years. Drummond's blog post tipped me to doing it.

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Bankrupt Canadian telecommunications company Nortel Networks Corp. announced on Friday that it has completed the sale of its 6,000 patents for $4.5 billion to the consortium of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research in Motion, and Sony. The consortium won the auction for Nortel's patents on July first.

Immediately following the closure of the auction, Research in Motion announced it had contributed $770 million to the bid, and Ericsson announced it had contributed $340 million, for a combined 1.11 billion. According to a recent 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange commission, Apple had the majority stake in the bid, throwing in $2.6 billion, leaving the remaining $800 million to be split between Microsoft, Sony, and EMC.

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As patent lawsuits become ever more frequent, companies are building up their portfolios in an effect to protect themselves from litigation. Google is no stranger to this practice, as it confirmed on Friday it had purchased 1,030 patents from IBM. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

No doubt Google is still smarting from its loss to Apple in the race to acquire the intellectual property of Nortel Networks. The company was the odd man out in bidding for Nortel's technologies. It appears that the IBM patent purchase occurred some time in the middle of this month, indicating Google quickly moved on.

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Just two weeks after it launched here in the US, music service Spotify finds itself the target of a patent fight. San Diego-based PacketVideo sued the company in both the US and Netherlands on Thursday, claiming it could not come to an agreement over licensing of its technologies.

"PacketVideo has a strong intellectual property portfolio, and will take any necessary action needed to protect its intellectual property and prevent the misuse of its patents," the company's general counsel Joel Espelien said in a statement.

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GestureTek, a company which we first noticed three years ago for its Wii-like motion controller technology for smartphones, has sold some of its motion control and gesture recognition technology patents to chipmaker Qualcomm. This acquisition is a signal of the importance of inputs in mobile devices beyond the touchscreen.

Qualcomm will integrate GestureTek's technologies into its popular line of Snapdragon smartphone mobile processors, giving equipment manufacturers the option to enable their devices with natural user interfaces.

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Billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn thinks Motorola Mobility might be sitting on a goldmine with its wireless patent portfolio, and thinks the mobile communications company should perhaps begin shopping them around.

In an amended schedule 13D Icahn filed with the SEC today, the investor's beliefs were clearly laid out:

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Sometimes I really can't figure out Microsoft. Does the left-side corporate brain not connect to the right?

Take this new business in Microsoft patents supposedly applied to Android. HTC already coughs up five bucks per handset in licensing fees and scuttlebutt is Microsoft wants $10-$15 per phone from Samsung. Had the Supreme Court sided with Microsoft in last month's i4i ruling, Samsung and other Android licensees could quite possibly have invalidated the patents in court -- putting an end to Microsoft's lucrative Android patent payment business.

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Bankrupt Canadian telecommunications company Nortel Networks Corp. has been slowly selling off its assets since 2009, and this year it put its most valuable intellectual property up for auction: essential patents for approximately 6,000 telecommunications and Internet technologies, including fundamental patents included in the LTE wireless standard.

In 2009, Research in Motion co-CEO Mike Lazardis called these patents a "national treasure that Canada must not lose."

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Today, Nokia announced that it had resolved all patent claims with Apple, which will pay on-going royalties to the Finnish phone manufacturer. Apple also will make a one-time payment to Nokia. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"We are very pleased to have Apple join the growing number of Nokia licensees," Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, says in a statement. "This settlement demonstrates Nokia's industry leading patent portfolio and enables us to focus on further licensing opportunities in the mobile communications market."

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