Google blasts Apple et al for patent trolling

Google's top legal officer yesterday posted a scathing indictment of adversaries Apple, Microsoft and Oracle for pursuing "bogus" patent claims that may serve to drive up the costs of phones using Google's Android mobile operating system.

Google's top lawyer, David Drummond
(Credit: Google)

Google senior vice president and chief legal officer David Drummond paints a picture of rivals envious of Android's success, noting that more than 550,000 Android devices are activated daily.

"But Android's success has yielded something else: a hostile, organised campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents," Drummond wrote in a post under the heading "When patents attack Android".

The three rivals are pecking away at Android, suing Google for violating various patents in creating the popular operating system. Oracle filed suit a year ago, accusing Google of infringing on patents related to Java, which the database company acquired when it took ownership of Sun Microsystems in early 2010.

Microsoft has taken a different approach, suing device makers who use Android, including US-based bookseller Barnes & Noble, which makes the Nook electronic reader, and Motorola. The software giant has also induced several companies, most notably HTC, to pay patent licensing fees for using Android to avoid being sued.

In late June, Apple was part of the consortium of technology companies, along with Microsoft, that won the bidding with a US$4.5 billion offer to take ownership of Nortel's portfolio containing some 6000 patents and patent applications for wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, internet and semiconductor technologies. Apple staked US$2.6 billion of that offer. The group outbid Google.

Drummond wrote that all those legal actions and patent purchases don't merely thwart Android.

"Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it," Drummond writes.

Microsoft and Oracle declined comment. Apple didn't respond to queries for a response.

"I have worked in the tech sector for over two decades. Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other's throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what's going on," Drummond wrote.

He sees their banding together to acquire the Nortel patents as a direct assault on Android, which has quickly surpassed both the iPhone and devices running the Windows Phone and the previous Windows Mobile as the top-selling smartphone operating system in the United States. He goes on to note that smartphones might face up to 250,000 "largely questionable" patent claims, which serve as a "tax" on the devices.

"Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation," Drummond wrote.

Of course, that's the common cry of the accused in patent litigation. Rather than acknowledge infringing, defendants accuse plaintiffs of trying to stifle innovation in the courts.

And Google is clearly not above using some of the same tactics to protect itself from patent litigation. The company also bid on the Nortel patents. And it's reportedly looking into buying wireless technology company InterDigital for its wireless patent portfolio.

"We're also looking at other ways to reduce the anti-competitive threats against Android by strengthening our own patent portfolio," Drummond wrote, without mentioning specific companies.

Drummond's post pays homage to an investigative piece by NPR's "This American Life" last month entitled "When Patents Attack", chronicling how software patents have gone from a protective measure for technology companies, to a big business for non-practising entities — companies that license patents but doesn't actually have any other business.

Lately that behaviour's centred around the targeting of mobile app developers on both Apple and Google's mobile platforms by entities like Lodsys and MacroSolve. Earlier this year these intellectual property holders began targeting companies big and small for allegedly infringing on patents held, offering up licensing deals at the risk of litigation if such a deal could not be struck. As a result, Apple tried to step in and shield developers on its platform, saying its own licence covers the activity being targeted. Groups like Article One Partners have also served as conduits for groups looking to get patents from Lodsys and MacroSolve invalidated, using crowdsourced research that aims to find prior art.

Josh Lowensohn contributed to this report.

Via CNET