Google took the battle to enemy lines when their SVP and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond blogged on Wednesday that several of Google’s rivals were attempting to use ‘bogus patents’ to destroy Android.
Drummond vented his spleen on Microsoft and Apple saying they were bedding together to fight Google with patents. He stated that Android’s success had prompted software giant Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies to organize a hostile campaign against it. He alleged that the rivals were doing this by banding together to acquire Novell’s old patents.
It may be noted here that earlier Microsoft, Apple, EMC and Oracle had grouped together to acquire Novell patents and later on Microsoft and Apple teamed up with RIM, Ericsson, EMC and Sony to acquire the Nortel patents.
Drummond alleged that the software titans teamed up together to make sure that Google did not get the patents; thereby allowing them to seek $ 15 licensing fees for every Android device and ensuring that it becomes expensive for phone manufactures to license Android, which is now provided free of charge by Google, as compared to Windows Phone 7, a Microsoft device. He averred that Microsoft and Apple had defeated the very purpose of patents – innovation. “Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation,” he kvetched.
Microsoft had a scathing answer to Google’s blog post. The software giant’s General Counsel Brad Smith tweeted, “Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.”
Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s Head of Communications had a biting adjunct. He tweeted, “Free advice for David Drummond – next time check with Kent Walker before you blog.”
This was accompanied by an image of an email apparently exchanged between Brad Smith and Kent Walker, General Counsel, Google on October 28, 2010. It read as follows:
Brad –
“Sorry for the delay in getting back to you – I came down with a 24-hour bug on the way from San Antonio. After talking with people here, it sounds as though for various reasons a joint bid wouldn’t be advisable for us on this one. But I appreciate your flagging it, and we are open to discussing other similar opportunities in the future.
“I hope the rest of your travels go well, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.”
- Kent
On the face of it, this communication de-bases Google’s argument that its rivals are ganging up against it in the matter of patents, while they had apparently invited Google to be a part of the consortium.
To give merit to Google’s claims, the patent law is about striking the balance between protecting patent holders to encourage investments in innovation and limiting them enough to allow other innovations. Citing unnamed sources, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Department of Justice is investigating to establish whether the Rockstar Bidco Consortium could use its Nortel patents to unfairly throttle Android.
Google’s opponents claim that they are simply protecting the intellectual property on which they spent a lot of money to develop, acquire.
Todd Wasserman of Mashable is of the opinion that most of Google’s troubles are of its own making. He is of the view that the search engine giant failed to take the bidding process for Nortel patents seriously, instead using it as a platform for some obscure mathematical calculations regarding valuations.
On the importance of patents Intellectual property analyst Florian Mueller said, “The mobile phone sector is notoriously litigious. Unfortunately, it’s a tough area for new entrants who don’t have a strong patent portfolio.”
Google seems to have later realized the importance of intellectual property which is obvious in its act of acquiring IBM patents and hiring Suzanne Michel, one of FTC’s top patent lawyers, recently.