+++
I wrote this cover story for an international magazine
about Google gobbling up Motorola Mobility.
After publication, one lawyer noted:
"Very in-depth analysis. I haven't seen anything
at this level. Very impressed!"
+++
I wrote this cover story for an international magazine
about Google gobbling up Motorola Mobility.
After publication, one lawyer noted:
"Very in-depth analysis. I haven't seen anything
at this level. Very impressed!"
+++
IT'S THE CHIPS
NOT THE CARDS
Google has learnt the hard way that volume matters with smartphone patents. The more you have, the more you can bet – and the longer you can stay in the game. Its aggressive moves to build its stake threaten to distort the patent market and affect more than just smartphones.
It had been a rough couple of weeks for Google. Its mobile operating system Android was in trouble; "Google's loss" and "Google's blunder" shouted the headlines. It was early July, and the search engine's $900 million stalking-horse bid on the Nortel patents had been completely outmatched. A consortium of competitors – including rivals Apple and Microsoft – had together bid an unprecedented $4.5 billion for some 6,000 patents covering various wireless and digital communication technologies.
Publicly, Google would only say that it was "disappointing". But a clue that the company was planning something much bigger came just four weeks later. On August 3, Google's senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond, in a blog post titled "When patents attack Android", called the outcome of the Nortel auction a "hostile, organized campaign" against the smartphone platform. "Unless we act," he wrote, "consumers could face rising costs for Android devices – and fewer choices for their next phone."
Two weeks later came another post, this time from CEO Larry Page at 4:35 am Monday morning: Google was acquiring Motorola Mobility.
The news spread quickly and with much speculation. Depending on who was talking, the company had either wisely armed itself against the surge of patent litigation targeting Android manufacturers or had just spent $12.5 billion on 17,000 junk patents. The one thing everyone did agree on was that, in an industry dominated by a few big players, Google needed a strong patent portfolio to guarantee its existence.
Read the rest here.
Publicly, Google would only say that it was "disappointing". But a clue that the company was planning something much bigger came just four weeks later. On August 3, Google's senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond, in a blog post titled "When patents attack Android", called the outcome of the Nortel auction a "hostile, organized campaign" against the smartphone platform. "Unless we act," he wrote, "consumers could face rising costs for Android devices – and fewer choices for their next phone."
Two weeks later came another post, this time from CEO Larry Page at 4:35 am Monday morning: Google was acquiring Motorola Mobility.
The news spread quickly and with much speculation. Depending on who was talking, the company had either wisely armed itself against the surge of patent litigation targeting Android manufacturers or had just spent $12.5 billion on 17,000 junk patents. The one thing everyone did agree on was that, in an industry dominated by a few big players, Google needed a strong patent portfolio to guarantee its existence.
Read the rest here.
