This past class we learned about non-practicing entities that purchase patent rights to then sue companies that use that certain invention. Although Google suing British Telecom with Motorola patents is not an example of this, it is essentially the same thing. Since Motorola was bought out by Google, it gave Google the ability to own all of its patents and then use them to sue other companies who attempt to infringe. In this case, Google was able to secure 17,000 patents and is still waiting to hear about 7,500 more, just to be able to use them as leverage over other companies.
This latest round of Google's lawsuits is especially interesting because it is coming after BT sued Google for claiming it infringed on patents of its own. In response, Google is using the Motorola patents it recently purchased to counter sue. This highlights the back and forth nature of patent wars, which seem to be never end nowadays. We can only wait to see what the outcome will be.
An interesting fact at the end of the article that I thought was worth mentioning is that "Only 5,462 [patents] were filed at the height of the technology boom in 2000, but more than 14,200 were lodged last year". We can see the increasing importance of patents as everything is becoming even more competitive in the mobile market since it expects to increase to a 500 billion dollar industry in the next few years. For these companies, owning these patents is what gives them a competitive edge and slowing down their competitors in litigation battles is all part of the game to own the most market share.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/9869327/Google-uses-Motorola-patents-to-sue-BT.html
What do you think will occur when these patents will expire? Do you think that companies will just have a gazillion patents behind them and in front of them to protect their products?
ReplyDeleteThis is very interesting. I have a feeling that these companies are going to be focusing more on securing patents than producing innovations in the future.
ReplyDeleteI talked about the same article in my blog. It is very interesting seeing how Google is suing them two years after. I think the laws on patent infringement should be harsher since companies spend more time and money in law suits than research and development.
ReplyDelete@Alisha - When the patent expires it will go into the public domain, so people will be able to see what it was for.
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