Google Inc. (GOOG) is fighting back in a war of words over its patent position. There’s a side effect of Android’s success, David Drummond, the company’s chief legal officer and SVP lamented in a blog post.
“Android and other platforms are competing hard against each other, and that’s yielding cool new devices and amazing mobile apps for consumers. But Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents,” he wrote.
“Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it,” he continued. “A smartphone might involve as many as 250,000 (largely questionable) patent claims, and our competitors want to impose a ‘tax’ for these dubious patents that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers. They want to make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices. Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation.”
Of course, Google is also none to happy about its failed attempt at Nortel’s patent portfolio. “The winning $4.5 billion for Nortel’s patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1 billion,” Drummond wrote.
“We’re not naive; technology is a tough and ever-changing industry and we work very hard to stay focused on our own business and make better products. But in this instance we thought it was important to speak out and make it clear that we’re determined to preserve Android as a competitive choice for consumers, by stopping those who are trying to strangle it.”
