Google Buys More Than 1000 Patents From IBM
Google has splashed out an undisclosed amount on around 1000 patents from IBM as Google attempts to create a patent portfolio that will help mitigate further legal battles that have caused concerns over their Android operating system among other things.
“Like many tech companies, at times we’ll acquire patents that are relevant to our business needs,”
“Bad software patent litigation is a wasteful war that no one will win.”
Google records 1030 patents bought in mid-July
So what have Google gone and bought?
The patents seem to range from microprocessors to memory architecture, incorporating servers and routers, so a mixed bag of technical tricks.
Google bid $900 million for Nortel patents:
In an audacious move in April 2011 Google put a bid in for 6000 of Nortel’s patents and apparently offered a stupidly high figure of $900 million. This would have given them legal rights to many patents that could help them to stave litigation in the future and put them in very strong legal standings moving forward as they have done into manufacturing and software.
Google making sure it does not lose out a second time:
Google however missed out on the chance to obtain the 6,000 patents owned by the Canadian company Nortel.
The winners of that particular sale were a consortium that contained tech giants such as Microsoft, Apple, EMC, RIM, Sony and Ericsson.
And the amount paid for these patents was a massive $4.5 billion.
Google currently being sued
We have already discussed many of Google’s current legal battles, and they are not the only tech companies that are involved in high end litigation regarding manufacturing and software.
Google Versus Oracle
In an earlier report we covered the ongoing legal battle between Oracle and Google over the Android operating system.
This battle is far from over. Though from cursory observation it appears that the damage will not be as severe as Google had feared initially, or indeed as heavy as Oracle would have liked, but the case is far from over.
Time will tell who will be the winners and losers out of all this litigation. One thing for sure is that the legal teams for the companies concerned are certainly rubbing their hands together…and they will be hoping that the magic dust does not settle any time soon, I am sure.
Anthony Munns