“Last week, a consortium that included Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony won 6,000 Nortel patents for a cool $4.5 billion,” Larry Dignan reports for ZDNet. “Google had started the bidding with a $900 million stalking horse bid, reportedly got cute with Pi-related offers and lost its best chance to defend Android in the courtroom.”
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“The odd thing here is that Google initially said it was bidding on Nortel’s patents to defend against lawsuits. Apparently, Google thinks it can get better returns on $4.5 billion by paying lawyers to defend Android,” Dignan reports. “So what’s next? Lawsuits. Lots of them… The real battle royale will come as the consortium moves to sue Google over Android. If Oracle vs. Google is notable just wait until Apple sues over Android.”
Dignan writes, “Google wasn’t going to cure all of its Android IP problems with Nortel’s patents, but it would have acquired one nice line of defense. Losing Nortel’s patents—even at the ridiculous $4.5 billion price tag—may come back to haunt Google and Android.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Patent infringement is a crime. Crime is evil.
iPhone caused Google to lose their soul.
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