“In attempting to fend off Apple and Microsoft’s suits against Motorola Mobility and advancing its own patent litigation against both companies, Google, which is facing a lot of regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. and abroad over what some allege is abuse of SEPs [standards-essential patents], has been arguing that proprietary non-standardized technologies that become ubiquitous due to their popularity with consumers should be considered de facto standards,” John Paczkowski reports for AllThingsD.
“Google’s view is that just as there are patents that are standards essential, there are also patents that are commercially essential — patents that cover features that are so popular as to have become ubiquitous. The latter are just as ripe for abuse as the former, and withholding them is just as harmful to consumers and the competitive marketplace. Viewed through that lens, multitouch technology or slide-to-unlock might be treated the same way as an industry standard patent on, say, a smartphone radio,” Paczkowski reports. “This argument, of course, has massive implications for Apple, which has developed a treasure trove of what might be considered by some as commercially essential IP around the iPhone and iPad. And the company was quick to take severe exception to it. In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Apple General Counsel Bruce Sewell rebutted Walker’s argument. ‘That a proprietary technology becomes quite popular does not transform it into a ‘standard’ subject to the same legal constraints as true standards,’ he wrote.”
Paczkowski reports, “Apple’s point is that if you remove the IP distinctions between the two, you remove a key incentive for innovators to innovate. Apple spent billions in research and development to create the iPhone. It didn’t spend that money to create the iPhone’s competition. And this is a point Apple and CEO Tim Cook have hammered home again and again, since the smartphone IP Hundred Years War began.”
Much more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
(photo by Brigitte Lacombe)
MacDailyNews Take: You know, Google’s search algorithmns have proven to be quite popular. If Google really believes their bullshit, they should welcome Yahoo’s immediate implementation of those search algorithmns at the hands of new Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who, as a former Googler (employee #20), must be quite familiar with the tech.
After all, Google’s search algorithmns seem to be commercially essential and withholding them is harmful to the competitive marketplace. Bing should be able to use them, too. Excite, even.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]