Troll Spray For The Patent Trolls
Websters Dictionary defines a patent as "a grant made by a government that confers upon the creator of an invention the sole right to make, use and sell that information for a set period of time." The idea of a patent has been traced all the way back to 500BC in Greece when anyone who thought up an idea that made them money had the right to keep all the profits for one year. Somehow I doubt the ancient Greeks had a tablet or cell phone in mind when they created this precedent. We have covered the Apple vs Google vs Microsoft patent war on our site over the last few weeks, Kidromulous even predicted that Google would purchase Motorola on our site days ago. Now it is official Google has bought Motorola for $12.5 billion and it has not taken long for the Internet to erupt in rumors and speculation as to what this will mean for Google. In order to see what the purchase will mean We need to look at why this just happened.
2600 patent infringement cases are filed annually in the United States with an average cost of $3-10 million per case, I don't think I have enough room in this article to write how many zeros that equals out too. Patents were invented to prevent intellectual theft and allow the people who dream up a concept to profit from it. Over the years patents have developed into an offensive strategy in many fields that companies use to slow up and hold back competitors. This is not a new strategy with the Netherlands going so far as to abolish patents from 1869-1912. Google has been behind the 8-ball in the patent game for a while. This has cost Google and its business partners in both headaches and capital. This morning Google announced that it is purchasing Motorola Mobility as what can easily be labeled as a strike back against these patent trolls. Why Moto you ask? Motorola has been around since 1928 and has 24,500 patents granted and pending. This one fact is the big reason behind this purchase. The other is that in the first quarter of this year Motorola Mobilty posted a $89 million loss. Moto Mobility is one of the few Android companies not turning a profit currently. This is why Google has purchased Moto over other companies that produce Android phones and tablets. HTC made more then the purchase cost of Moto in the first quarter of this year. Google bought Moto because it served two purposes, 1. Their patent portfolio is now large enough to help protect their interests and 2. They bought Moto for a song. Nortell received $4.5 billion from Microsoft, Apple, RIM etc last month for only 882 patents. Talk about using your money wisely.Many in the Android community including manufacturers are worried that this sale will impact the free and open status of Android and that Google is going to go the Apple route by buying up hardware. This is simply not true. Larry Page himself had this to say about the Nexus situation,
We have this strategy where we have this Nexus program, and we have this lead device strategy. That strategy has worked quite well to help focus the team.
What we do is that we select each -- around Christmastime of each year -- we select a manufacturer that we work very closely with to release a device in that time frame. That includes, also, semiconductor companies and all of the components that go in the device.
Essentially the teams huddle together in one building. They jointly work in these development efforts -- they go on for nine to 12 months. And ultimately at the
holiday season, or right before it, devices pop out that are based on this effort.
We don't expect that to change at all. The acquisition is going to be run as a separate business. They will be part of that bidding process, and part of that lead development process. And obviously Android remains open to other partners to use as they are today.
This sale while giving Google access to Motorola's technology is not for Google to get in the manufacturing business. Motorola will not push out other manufacturers making Android phones. It is for Google to gain leverage in the battle that is patent law these days. So don't look at this sale with fear that Motoblur will find its way onto your device but look at it as Google arming themselves with some serious ammo to fight back in the courts for the rest of the year.
JKeene
AndroREV
We are AndroREV WE are!
We are AndroREV WE are!
