“Google’s chief legal counsel’s angry screed on the company’s official blog in which he accuses Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) of waging a hostile, organized, anti-competitive campaign against Android through dubious and bogus patents (adjectives all his) may be remembered as one of the most misguided briefs any high-tech lawyer has ever written,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“Drummond accuses Google’s competitors of overpaying for “bogus” patents. But if Nortel’s 6,000 patents were bogus, why did Google start the bidding at nearly $1 billion and why was it willing to pay nearly the full $4.5 billion they eventually went for?” P.E.D. wonders. “He accuses Microsoft and Apple of ‘get[ting] into bed’ to keep Google from getting access to key patents. But Microsoft says Google turned down its offer to jointly bid for some Novell patents, and it has the e-mail to prove it.”
P.E.D. reports, “Google hasn’t been faring well in the patent courts. Some e-mails turned up last month in Google’s patent infringement dispute with Oracle that show Android developer Andy Rubin recommending that Google license Java and being overruled by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The time to pay the piper approaches for the “geniuses” at Google.
As we said back on March 09, 2010, “Google’s going to rue the day they got greedy by deciding to try to work against Apple instead of with them.”
Looking forward to Android’s demise.
This is a clearly a frustration plea prior to looming failure. This attorney is throwing patent law away and just trying to appeal to some facade of unfairness. He is trying PR instead of practicing the law. No place to turn when you are about to collapse, so people cry of unfairness.
That does seem like a really odd thing for a lawyer to say; usually they do their best to keep all mouths shut, including their own.
exactly
I like the last paragraph in the article:
As FOSS Patents’ Florian Mueller reports, when the judge overseeing the case saw the e-mails, he advised Google’s legal team to settle out of court: “You are going to be on the losing end of this document with Andy Rubin on the stand. … If willful infringement is found, there are profound implications for a permanent injunction. So you better think about that.”
The Apple stock pile of cash is certainly going to come in useful.
Google’s disingenuous stance is driven by being miffed that they might have to pay for the technology they have plagiarised so freely.
Google. A discredited, bellyaching paper tiger.
It would’t surprised me if Google were to sack its chief counsel for the embarrassment from the adverse backlash it is receiving. Drummond’s outburst is juvenile, out of order and unprofessional. He should be arguing his case in court and not carrying out a blatant public relations to circumvent the court’s jurisdiction.
The lawyer was merely echoing what Schmidt and others at Google were saying publicly. Monkey see; monkey do.
Further, it occurs to me that this is not only the official Google company line, it has become their legal mantra and the other phone manufacturers are bleating the same phrases. There is definitely co-ordination in process.
Is all of this the heavy artillery softening up the defenses for the last ditch attack? Google doesn’t strike me as the type to see the error of their ways, apologize and try to make amends (voluntarily).
All of this ‘stifling of innovation’, ‘anti-competitive’, ‘monopolistic’ sloganeering is a propaganda media blitz for the benefit of those venal, progressive politicos waiting to get their anti-capitalistic hooks into Apple’s corpulent, juicy carcass.
I apologize in advance to those who will find my perspective offensive.
Im tired of arguing with Android fanboys about iPhone vs Android. They say Android was bought by Google in 2005, a full 2 years before Apple released the iPhone.
As if Apple started developing the iPhone in late 2006
Ha ha! Yeah, it’s true — Android does go back that far. And back then, it was a ripoff of Blackberry! Once the iPhone was released, Google went back to the drawing board and turned their Blackberry ripoff into an iPhone ripoff.
You want to see Android fanboys, visit Slashdot. It’s like travelling to an alternate universe, where there’s nothing about the iPhone that wasn’t completely obvious, and all the innovation comes from Android.
——RM
Bingo:
Being part of the /. crowd, myself. The Android people want to hack and tinker and spend all day getting stuff to work the way they want. That’s all great, but they don’t represent normal consumers, no matter how much they think they do.
/., Digg, they’re so “myspace” these days…
Bill following links on the link you provided
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/05/google_shows_fi.html
this link shows a VERY interesting video of Serge Brin in 2008 and an iPhone clone . Go “to 3:08 of the video — he demos a GPhone with an iPhone-like form-factor. It’s even adopted the iPhone’s drag-your-page around model.” *
* From http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/05/google_shows_fi.html
I checked it out and I think you’re right about the fanboys; the posting is very teen boyish and very fanatical without moderation – facts. Here is an example,
Scene:
Google turn up at the acutions, bidding in joke numbers as their bids.
MS, Apple & Oracle knowing that individually they won’t be able to beat google team up against them.
Google stops bidding after pi, it’s work there having been done
The Axis of Evil win the patents
Google now claim that the purchase of the patents for nearly 5 times their estimated value is purely for anti-competitive purposes which triggers the DOJ to investigate the deal and potentially invalidate all the patents, or force fair licencing or lead to a reform of the patent structure.
Result:
Google convinces it’s competitors to spend 4.5 billion to reform the patent system to something a bit more sane.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page operate Google, under this motto,
“Why would we pay for suff? It’s on the internet – it’s free!”
But I’m not sure that the manifesto of some teenagers’ fallacious rationales of IP theft is a good way to run a multi-billion dollar corporation.
I have a feeling that we’re about to find out.
I doubt it was Brin or Page. It was the mole. Even here WS shsyters want to protect their own.
Page is worse. They are all ruthless and, frankly, bought into their own grand delusions brought to by their image agencies. This whole notion that the Ph.D. student founders were Goody Two-Shoes while Mr. Schmidt was the necessary evil is just a myth and image construct.
Google is a manipulative, conniving ad agency, don’t let silly slogans fool you into thinking they’re mostly naive. Rot is at their core.
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-do-i-hate-google-let-me-count-the-ways-2011-8
Google: We Don’t Innovate, We Imitate
Andy Rubin: “Guys, as lead Android Developer, I highly recommend we license some code from Oracle.”
Sergey Brin (speaking in Vulcan): “Nobody questions us nerds! We license from no one, especially from small penis Ellison. Be gone with you and go see what Apple’s up to!”
Larry Page (speaking in Klingon): “I can’t believe I’m CEO. See! There is hope for all us socially awkward freaks everywhere. What does CEO stand for again?
ROFLMAO!
Love it! 🙂
Us Apple fanboys really need to thank Bill Gates and Microsoft for Google’s Android woes. In fact, the way MS stole the Mac GUI and created Windows taught Steve Jobs and Apple a very valuable lesson–protect your technology.
Decades later Apple is using that knowledge decades to patent the hell out of iOS, build a $75B war chest, and hire the best lawyers to make sure no one can successfully steal their IP again.
Well, sadly, it would appear that Google boys have picked up a trick or a few from MS/Mr. Gates as well, particularly the art of photocopy machines for R&D, monopoly abuses, cry wolf when reality bites, fight on the backs of FUD army (or the delusional Open champions) and the blatant IP ripoffs. There are a few more tricks left that they are itching to get into, namely the innovation through litigation, and Ballmer’s dev kit.
“to make sure no one can successfully steal their IP again”
Well, since Fandroid phones are as common as cockroaches at the local phone stores, I don’t think Apple got out in front on this one.
I think it’s kind of ironic that Google now calls the very same Nortel patents it was bidding for as bogus. I don’t think they would be saying that if they had won the bid on them. Of Course Google is to cheap to bid very high. They think they have some special privileges that they shouldn’t have to license anything to make money off of everything. That’s going to change, I guarantee it!
Google wanted them to keep from being sued by Apple, Microsoft, and other companies that are afraid of Androids growth. They would not use them against others as Apple and Microsoft would. They would not have to use them, you only do that when you realize that what you have to offer sucks compared to the competition. It’s a last ditch effort, and Android is nowhere near at the last ditch efforts stage. Apple is evil and wants to slow down innovation. They don’t like giving the people what they want, they like giving the people what THEY want. (read that last part twice. It will make sense)
Ancient lawyers’ aphorism: If the facts are on your side, pound the facts; if the law is on your side, pound the law; if both the facts and the law are against you, pound the table.
“Google’s patent infringement dispute with Oracle that show Android developer Andy Rubin recommending that Google license Java and being overruled by Sergey Brin and Larry Page”
Awesome
Larry Ellison is a friend of Steve Jobs and has sat on the Apple Board (1997-2005) and wants nothing else more than a hunk of Google’s guts dripping from his sword.
How Google Thinks the World Should Work:
Google : “All material including patents should be free. How would that work? Well you put Ads next to your patents and engineering drawings. When people copy your patents they have to look at your ads…. EVERYTHING should be free, shoes, cars, food… just glue ads to everything… AND if you don’t put ads on your product, we HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE IT AND PUT ADS ON IT OURSELVES!”.
(my ribbing of Google isn’t entirely baseless, Google digitized artists, writers etc works to sell ads without giving compensation. They were sued numerous times)
Google has just been a search engine for me. Lately I have been seeing Google as a bunch jerks. Maybe their “Don’t be evil” was a defense against repressed greed. They sure are not acting honorable. Maybe it is time to look at Bing again.
That puts a whole new spin on the phrase. Instead of a mission statement to the outside world, it becomes a reminder said internally to co-workers who feel the urge to be evil all the time.
“Don’t be evil” is the perfect cover for those with evil intentions, aka wolves in sheep’s clothing. Honestly, I have no idea what Google’s long-term goals are, but there’s no question that they betrayed Apple’s trust quite ruthlessly, so why should anyone else trust them?
Google is in over their heads and don’t know it. They evidently think that being King of Search means that they are destined to be “king” of everything. Deluded minds riding for a fall.
If you read some of the accounts of the bidding for the Nortel patents, it appeared that Google was more than a bit cocky. The company placed bids in successive rounds based on variations of pi, which might lead one to believe that Google felt, to its detriment, that the auction for the patent portfolio was a done deal.
The ferocity of the screed would suggest that reality has set in at Google. No longer will an Android license be free to Google’s handset partners, and a minefield of possible patent litigation lies ahead for them. This takes away a significant attraction to the Android platform, adding friction to its progress.
i doubt that Android will go away any time soon. But if you are a handset maker such as HTC, the added costs lower already very thin profit margins and makes competing platforms both more competitive, if not more attractive. Much as I hate to admit it, Microsoft gains an advantage because the Windows 7 Mobile platform is now effectively less expensive to license, and may be protected behind a moat of formerly Nortel patents.
As it is, it’s ironic that because of patents and litigation, that Microsoft makes more profit from charging $15 per smartphone to Android handset makers than it does from its own Windows Phone licenses and phones.
And Apple? Winning the Nortel battle gives the company more leverage in litigation, both to launch lawsuits and to negotiate if in case another party such as Samsung or HTC wage war against Cupertino. In addition, Apple could also demand patent royalties from its Android competition.
In all, the days when you could simply invent a better mousetrap and expect to live happily ever after are long past. Today, having good patent attorneys is as important as it is to have leading technology. Let’s hope that serious patent reform might happen in our lifetimes.
How on earth can you be anti-competitive against a free and open source technology. Is Google going to claim some “Loss” on the fact that they gave away less copies of their product than they wanted to give away?
They should have Googled this idea of copying Apple. I think the search results would have been useful.
Dell: I would close it and return the money.
Apple: you are a target, we are coming after you.
Ummmm…. For a search company, they apparently do not use their software. Maybe they used “Bing” since it is a Decision Engine.
Bad decision.
If it wasn’t for the fact that you have to jailbreak your phone to actually enjoy it, Android wouldn’t have been so popular in the first place. I like iPhones, but having a phone with 2 large useless bezzles around a tiny screen, with app launcher squares that just scroll left to right is just flat boring. Great- as soon as Android is gone, Apple can go back to the game of releasing one feature per year that makes you want to get the next iPhone. Only took 3 yrs to give us “official” legally accepted wallpaper background, multitasking, and video recording. Couldn’t give it to you too fast or you may not want to upgrade. Yay- Can’t wait to go back to totalitarianism and the the slow release of tech so they can make more money, dark ages. Apple is greedy, scared, and evil. Many are just blind to the fact. Ok, they make good stuff, but competition in the smartphone world brings good things for all of us. Without it, Apple could care less about giving us features we want- to actually enjoy our phones, instead they like to spend major resources breaking your jailbreak on every update they release. Can’t we at least have a “delete all” option in our text app? Nope- not yet. If Apple were Microsoft instead, they would make all other tyrant like companies seem like baby pandas. Apple is the dark Sith of tech and only when it’s too late and you lose more and more freedoms of your phone, will you understand. With Android gone, Apple will give us innovative tech at such a slow pace- your mind will be boggled. (3 yrs for the allowance of wallpaper)
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