“Android, the mobile operating system from Google, has been on a tear over the past two years,” Peter Burrows and Dina Bass report for Businessweek. “Its share of the smartphone market rocketed from less than 3 percent to 48 percent during that time, according to research firm Canalys.”
“Yet there’s one thing that may stop, or at least slow, Android’s ascent: patent fights,” Burrows and Bass report. “Google and HTC, Motorola, and Samsung, the three largest manufacturers of Android handsets, have each been hit with lawsuits claiming their mobile software violates others’ patents… Google, with fewer patents of its own and lots of enemies, is in a uniquely poor position.”
“An abbreviated list of the ongoing litigation: Oracle is demanding the search giant pay $6 billion for using its Java mobile software. Apple has sued Taiwan-based HTC for violating its patents, and on July 15 a judge found in favor of the iPhone maker, which could result in a American import ban on certain HTC phones,” Burrows and Bass report. “In a similar suit in Australia, Samsung agreed on Aug. 1 not to import a version of its iPad-like Galaxy Tab.”
Burrows and Bass report, “The lawsuits could substantially raise the cost of making Android phones. To settle an infringement claim, HTC last year agreed to pay Microsoft $5 for every handset it sells, according to estimates from Citibank Global Markets (C) analyst Walter H. Pritchard. If other claims are successful, the total royalty bill could make Android hardware makers consider alternative phone software—including Microsoft’s—says Kevin Rivette, managing partner at 3LP Advisors. ‘Patents are the only card left for these established companies to play—and it’s an ace,’ says Rivette.”
Read more in the full article here.