Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) failure to win last week’s auction for bankrupt Nortel Network’s treasure trove of networking and telecom patents surprised observers who saw it as an opportunity for the company to protect itself from litigation, as well as get a leg up on the competition in the development of new mobile technology.
A half dozen tech firms–Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Research In Motion, EMC, Ericsson and Sony-ponied up a collective $5.4 billion to acquire the rights to the patents, outbidding Google and Intel.
“I would have thought they would seize this once in a lifetime opportunity to become a new wireless patent player,” intellectual property analyst Florian Mueller told the BBC. “It’s not going to have, any time soon, a comparable opportunity to acquire such a diversity of relevant patents in a single purchase.” Google currently has about 700 patents that relate to mobile technology.
“No major industry player is as needy in terms of patents as Google,” Mueller said. There are some 45 patent infringement lawsuits already surrounding Android; however, he noted that even “by purchasing Nortel’s portfolio, Google couldn’t have solved all of Android’s patent issues in one fell swoop.”
It was obviously a major disappointment to the search giant, which in April had made its desire to control the patents obvious with a $900 million opening bid.
“This outcome is disappointing for anyone who believes that open innovation benefits users and promotes creativity and competition,” Google SVP and General Counsel Kent Walker said in a statement. “We will keep working to reduce the current flood of patent litigation that hurts both innovators and consumers.”
The auction, the last of a series of asset sales by the defunct Canadian telecom firm, closed after four days of bidding among at least five major players that shifted as the bidding got higher. Apple, for example, originally had been on its own. It later joined Microsoft, RIM and Sony.
For more:
– read this BBC article
– see this AllThingsD article
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