Business & Tech

Google Claims Patent Wars 'Anti-Competitive'

In back and forth over bankrupt Nortel and Novell's patents, old enemies gang up against Mountain View-based Google.

A recent triumphant $4.5 billion bid for close to 6,000 patents by several high-tech giants, has ruffled some feathers up at the Googleplex with a scathing blogpost by Chief Legal Officer David Drummond.

In an official Google blogpost published Friday, Aug. 4, Drummond claimed that Microsoft and Apple have gotten "into bed together" because "Android is on fire."

"More than 550,000 Android devices are activated every day, through a network of 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers," he said.

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As a result Drummond posits that the successful bid for the old Nortel and Novell patents will "impose a 'tax' for these dubious patents that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers."

He then continued and called the tactic anti-competitive.

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In the first of a two part series on these patent wars, Palo Alto Patch business contributor John Kelley analyzed the bid process and the bidders. Part two, to be published at a later date, will examine the auction’s effects on non-bidding patent owners.

Click here to read Kelley's analysis.


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