Josh OngThe U.S. Patent and Trademark Office revealed the purchase after recording the patent transfers on Tuesday, as noted by SEO by the Sea. Google spokesman Jim Prosser confirmed the transaction, but declined to provide details of the deal, which took place on Aug. 17, according to the USPTO's records.
The fact that the Mountain View, Calif., software company purchased more than a thousand patents from IBM just two days after announcing its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola points to its continued interest in building up its patent portfolio, even after staking its claim on Motorola's 17,000 issued patents and 7,500 ongoing applications.
This isn't the first time Google has turned to the well-established technology giant for inventions, as the company purchased a batch of 1,030 patents from IBM in July.
A relatively young technology company given its size, Google has found its smaller IP collection easily outmatched by competitors. CEO Larry Page said last month that the Motorola merger came as an effort to "better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies."
Google recently complained that its rivals are conspiring against it by banding together to purchase groups of "bogus patents" from Novell and Nortel. In late June, Apple led a consortium including Microsoft, Sony and Research in Motion in bidding against Google. As for the Novell patents, Microsoft claims that Google was actually invited to join the group but declined.
The patent dispute between Apple and Android ratcheted up earlier this month when handset maker HTC took patents it had recently received from Google and promptly sued Apple for infringement. Google itself had received the patents from Palm, Motorola and Openwave over the past year.
Apple is locked in several fierce legal battles with major Android vendors, such as Samsung, Motorola and HTC. The iPhone maker recently won a permanent ban on Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Germany and an initial victory in its complaint against HTC with the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Android vendors are also facing a patent royalty assault from Microsoft. On top of a major licensing deal with HTC that may provide $5 per Android smartphone sold, Microsoft has struck patent licensing agreements (1, 2) with Acer, Viewsonic, Wistron Corp., Velocity Micro, General Dynamics and Onkyo Corp.
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Amber Neely
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
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44 Comments
Well I guess the do no evil concept is out the window.
More proof that Google expects Apple to be the winning purchaser of thousand upon thousand of VIP patents in the next auction.
Well I guess the do no evil concept is out the window.
What's evil about buying IP?
FYI. This is the origin of today's story:
http://www.seobythesea.com/2011/09/g...ust/#more-6675
And in this corner HTC playing the role of Lodsys. IV claims not use patents as an offensive weapon but they will transfer/sell the rights to another company for them to do it.
Now let's see. Google buys a patent from someone that bought it from someone that bought it from someone and then sold it for nominal fee to HTC to sue Apple.
When patents attack. Google the new Intelectual Ventrues.
Heck, at least Apple's patents actually have people from Apple, like Steve Jobs, listed as part of the invention team.
And in this corner HTC playing the role of Lodsys. IV claims not use patents as an offensive weapon but they will transfer/sell the rights to another company for them to do it.
Now let's see. Google buys a patent from someone that bought it from someone that bought it from someone and then sold it for nominal fee to HTC to sue Apple.
When patents attack. Google the new Intelectual Ventrues.
Heck, at least Apple's patents actually have people from Apple, like Steve Jobs, listed as part of the invention team.
No where near all of them Steven. There's a lot of Apple IP that was purchased from the original holder/inventor. Some that are essential to the iPhone and iPad user experience were developed by others and simply purchased by Apple.
Here's an example of one: http://www.pcworld.com/article/14314...echnology.html
Other recent IP purchases by Apple, not including the thousands from Nortel (still pending final approval) are:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/09/app...aterials-game/
http://www.xydo.com/articles/2069231...from_freescale