Microsoft: "Google declined to join us in the Novell patents" Google: nice try

[Darren Dirt]

A much more clear explanation of what went down, and why Google "declined to join" the Microsoft et al group buying the patents. It's not about patents. In a word: antitrust.

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110805154137803

So the issue Google was highlighting was a joining together of the big boys with the goal of making Android cost more, so people would be less inclined to get one. Is that what patents are for? I mean, legally, is that the purpose of patents?

Google's complaint is that this is illegal conduct, not that it's unfair or mean, although it likely would say it's all of the above.

How about the Paul Allen patents? They seem to be falling like dominoes currently, on reexamination, so people are being accused of infringing what it turns out are likely not even valid patents.

Same with Oracle's patents asserted against Google. Most of them on reexamination are now declared invalid.

How do you protect yourself from that? Google's blog post pointed out that a smartphone is such complicated technology that it could result in as many as 250,000 patent claims, most of them "questionable". Now do you understand why Google used the word "strangle" when saying that is what competitors were trying to do to Android? What company in the world could withstand that much litigation? That is already happening, of course, as we see Android vendors and Google being sued over patents that don't stand up to reexamination.

So if people are willing to assert invalid patents in litigation, how do you prepare for that?

You can't. No matter how diligent you are to avoid stepping on anyone's toes, someone will sue you, because the twisted patent system lets them.

..."So msft, appl et al tried to have goog pay a share of Nortel patents goog needed for counter-warfare, just to neutralize them in a cross license, and wonder why it refused? Is Brad an amateur or does he think we are all stupid?"

It was a trap, but looking at media accounts of the dispute and how almost everyone has missed the point that this is about antitrust law, not patent law, I would guess, if I have to choose one or the other, it's the latter, that he thinks we are all stupid.

effing FUD...