Xaby Info. Web Design and SEO Stuff: Microsoft, Google Patent Battle: Uglier and Uglier

Sunday 4 September 2011

Microsoft, Google Patent Battle: Uglier and Uglier

Microsoft and Google aren't exactly bosom buddies, but a recent series of Tweets and blog postings by the respective companies' executives threatens to make that already-tense relationship extra sour.

Earlier this year, a consortium led by Microsoft and Apple (which included Sony, EMC, Ericsson and others) outbid Google for 6,000 wireless technology patents held by Nortel Networks. Some of Nortel's patents covered the LTE (Long-Term Evolution) technology used by many smartphones currently on the market, and could have provided Google the cover it needed to repel intellectual-property lawsuits from its rivals.

Now Google's on the offensive, claiming that the consortium's motive for buying those patents is being scrutinized by federal regulators. "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," David Drummond, Google's senior vice president and chief legal officer, wrote in an Aug. 3 posting on The Official Google Blog. "Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anticompetitive means--which means these deals are likely to draw regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop."

He went on to claim that the Justice Department is "looking into whether Microsoft and Apple acquired the Nortel patents for anticompetitive means."

Microsoft decided it was time for a street brawl.

"Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google," Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, wrote in an Aug. 3 Tweet. "Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said 'no'."

The same day, Frank Shaw, Microsoft's corporate vice president of corporate communications (say that three times fast), also Tweeted: "Free advice for David Drummond - next time check with Kent Walker before you blog."

He included a link to an Oct. 28 email sent to Brad Smith by Kent Walker, Google's general counsel, suggesting that "a joint bid wouldn't be advisable for us on this one."

Is that a smoking gun? Not necessarily--that short email doesn't delve into many particulars over the deal itself. But if Microsoft intended to blunt Google's attempt to make itself look like an aggrieved party, it's certainly succeeded--the online chatter this morning definitely seems in Redmond's favor.

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