“What’s Going On?” says Google Chief Legal Officer About Collaborative Bidding –
The battle between Google (GOOG) and is smartphone rivals including Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT) got more heated last week.
In a public statement flagged by Bloomberg TV Google Legal Officer David Drummond as saying: “Apple and Microsoft had been at each others’ throats, so when they get into bed together you have to wonder what’s going on.”
Google, with just 693 patents, recently added to its portfolio with a purchase of an additional 1,000 from IBM. It is not clear what those patents read on. Google and its competitors are actively interested in InterDigital’s (IDCC) heavily 4G portfolio.
Drummond said last week “Android’s success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, and other companies, waged through bogus patents.”
Steven Levy who wrote a book on Google, a latecomer to patent strategy, believes the public war of words may not be enough to fend off businesses holding patents the company needs.
Video source: Bloomberg
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