Google says a number of competitors, including Microsoft and Apple, are campaigning against Android by buying up patents. Microsoft says that Google has just offered to bid on various patent portfolios together.
In a blog post Google’s Senior Vice President David Drummond writes that Microsoft and Apple, among others, are conducting an “organized hostile campaign” against the Android operating system. Those companies would buy up patents with the aim of thwarting Android. Recently, Microsoft and Apple, each in collaboration with other companies, managed to obtain a number of patents from Novell and from the bankrupt telecom company Nortel. Google also made an offer for the Nortel patents, but ultimately fell short.
Google claims that the companies want to enforce the payment of royalties from manufacturers who install Android on their phones. Microsoft is already doing this at Samsung and HTC, among others, who have to pay money to the software giant for each device sold. According to Drummond, this practice is at odds with the reason that patents exist; they would be used here to discourage, rather than encourage, innovation.
Microsoft attorney Brad Smith said in a tweet that the company offered Google to bid together on the Novell patents, but Google saw no interest in it. Microsoft spokesperson Frank Shaw then posted another screenshot of an email confirming Smith’s claim. Google has not yet responded to that.