Google is likely to get the green light from European and U.S. regulators as early as next week for its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility, but the company will likely face continued scrutiny over what?s seen as a lax pledge to license key smartphone patents, sources told POLITICO.
The development is part of an epic battle between mobile phone giants Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung and others in courts around the world over who owns the patents for what technologies ? sometimes resulting in injunctions barring sales of certain devices.
Continue Reading?It?s kind of a Cold War being played out here,? said Bert Foer, president of the American Antitrust Institute. ?We?re watching a form of warfare play out in which the system makes no sense but leads the players to mutually arm themselves with these missiles that they can utilize in order to achieve mutually assured destruction.?
Google tried to address antitrust concerns about control of Motorola?s rich portfolio of smartphone patents by issuing a letter Wednesday to 15 standards bodies saying that the company would be fair and reasonable in licensing some of the 17,000 patents it will acquire.
Motorola holds patents for standards such as Wi-Fi and online video. Some observers saw Google?s letter as a real attempt to assure regulators and competitors that the company would make the standards essential patents available in a fair and reasonable manner. It also listed the exceptions for when it would abandon its no-injunction pledge that some saw as ensuring that Google would continue to pursue injunctions.
?Google needs those patents because it is fighting a war,? said Robert Barr, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and formerly Cisco?s vice president for intellectual property and worldwide patent counsel. ?They have to get approval.?
The statement is unlikely to stand in the way of approval of Google's acquisition of Motorola's smartphone arm by European and U.S. officials, which could come as soon as early next week. But knowledgeable sources said it will likely leave a cloud over the company and will force continued monitoring of licensing of Motorola?s standards essential patents after the deal closes.
Both Microsoft and Apple have agreed to no use of injunctions without exception for standards essential patents they own. Patents are considered ?standards essential,? meaning that they are viewed as central to the interoperability of a technology and are typically licensed under fair and reasonable terms.
Those companies are part of a consortium that has bid $4.5 billion to buy patents from bankrupt Nortel ? a deal that is also likely to receive the OK from the Justice Department as early as next week.
However, Google was said to ?come up short? with a list of exceptions to when they would guarantee not to seek an injunction, thus leaving authorities and competitors wondering why.
Google indicated that the Motorola Mobility acquisition was motivated by its quest for patents to compete in the space ? as several device-makers using the company?s Android operating system in phones and tablet PCs have been brought to court by the likes of Apple amid patent infringement claims. But those were for claims of infringement of patents that are not parts of standards, sources said.
?Google seems to need to build a patent inventory very quickly,? Foer said. ?This is one way to do it. It seems to me to be a defensive strategy to allow them to continue to play in the game with the holders of these large numbers of patents.?
This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 5:52 p.m. on February 9, 2012.
caucus results exton zsa zsa gabor red dawn kurt warner kurt warner ricky williams
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.