Google is just on a losing streak against Microsoft. They can't seem to get anything right. This streak includes Microsoft's patent agreement with China's ZTE becoming public and how they received royalties from an Android patent license; defeating Google's pursuit of an injunction in Germany when Microsoft formed an agreement with Hon Hai; obtaining a FRAND decision related to Google's SEP and lastly, the patents that Google purchased from Motorola for $12.5b not helping Google at all in the current case of Motorola v. Apple.
The patents that Google purchased right now from Motorola are literally giving them no leverage in any cases they have faced so far. So far, Microsoft has won three cases against Motorola this year, including a U.S. import ban and will most likely win another one later this year. Microsoft's first German injunctions were ordered by the Munich I Regional Court all the way back in May of 2012. The case is based on "communicating multi-part messages between cellular devices using a standardized interface". Interestingly enough, the Munich Higher Regional Court rejected Google's appeal, which means that the Motorola Germany ban will stay unless an infringement finding is overturned by the German Federal Court of Justice but that is unlikely or if the original patent in question is invalidated by the Federal Patent Court -- neither are likely.
Fortunately for Google, even though it can't overturn the injunction, that still doesn't affect it's production. Companies still want to produce and license Android products.
Maybe Google will be able to stage a comeback in Germany, but as of now, they are really struggling to do so.
Great read Adam. Very interesting and informative. It's interesting to see how Google appears to be struggling lately. It still seems that they are not losing much though since it does not affect production. Hopefully like you said, Google might make a comeback in Germany.
ReplyDeleteAgree with all the points stated in this article, Adam. ZTE is the 20th company that Microsoft is entered into a patent agreement with. Its also pretty crazy that the Motorola portfolio has not reaped any dividends.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well - I think that the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola and their 17,000 patents could be used more effectively by Google. You'd think that they'd do so after such a major investment. As of now, Motorola/Google fail to compete in the smartphone arena against other giants such as Apple and Samsung.
ReplyDeleteI read about this one as well. Seems like Google is having a hard time justifying their Motorola Mobile acquisition. Thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteRead this on other peoples article and it very much sucks for Google to lose to Microsoft. That $12.5 billion investment proved to not be so good to them afterall.
ReplyDeleteRead this one as well, and maybe they've got something up their sleeve?
ReplyDeletei'm curious what the differential in legal exposure is for the Google-Motorola acquisition. Sure, Google now has access to a lot more patents in it's portfolio (whether or not they are value is a different story), but, they now have exposure to the IP infringement of Motorola.
ReplyDeleteYou would think the net gain would be substantial, if it costed $12.5B, however, from where I stand, that's pretty unclear.