Patent war at its hype; Apple Google, Microsoft and Motorola are the major actors – Part 1

The increase in litigation on hypothetical infringements of patents has begun to worry the big technology companies, some of whom are the major actors in the battles against copyrights violations. Apple, after forwarding a letter to ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute of Telecommunications) last year, called this month to opposed to blocking patents on essential standards. The company has maintained a position on this front for some years now. Microsoft has published a statement in which they agree not to sue companies on patent infringements but have urged the companies to supply them fair, reasonable and non discriminatory fee for the use. Microsoft explained that “consumers and the entire industry will be affected, if the promises are ignored. Companies try to prevent others from distributing their products with the use of same standards and essential patents.”

The company claimed that no warrant or requests of exclusion will be ordered against any company that uses its key patents and claims. However, other companies will not have access to essential patents unless they concede their own.

The same day that Microsoft released its position on patents after purchasing Motorola Mobility. The buyout of the electronic giants by the search engine company is about to be approved by the U.S. authorities. It is possible that the statement from Google is designed to reassure the authorities. Google said it will not claim more than 2.25% of the net cost of a device on the use of Motorola Mobility patents and promises to seek a negotiated settlement before legal action. Unlike Microsoft, Google does not give up on going to court on infringements of patents.

Florian Mueller, patent expert and head of the blog, Foss Patents, criticized the proposal because he believes that Google implemented the abovementioned rate on the final cost of the device which is quite expensive. “A chip of Qualcomm, which costs 15 Euros, contains all the essential functions. It does not make sense to apply the percentage of the final device that has a lot of added services.”

Mueller wondered what will happen to cars that have integrated communications services. Is the same applied on the percentage of the price of the whole vehicle?

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Feb 14 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.