Computer Support Blog

Protecting intellectual property rights is an essential part of providing art, products, and services all around the world.  In the tech sector, intellectual property rights are protected through the use of patents, most of which are actually held by business entities, instead of human inventors.  Because businesses control patents, they frequently buy and sell them as part of larger negotiations.  Recently, Google acquired the mobile phone manufacturer, Motorola.  With the acquisition of the company and its patents, Google has inherited a legal battle with Microsoft.

For years, Microsoft and Motorola have had multiple legal disputes over patents.  Microsoft has alleged that Motorola violated patent laws when they used Microsoft technology in their mobile phones without properly licensing it.  Motorola’s defense has frequently been that Microsoft’s fees for the technology Motorola utilized violated fair payment practices, as written into patent licensing law.  The two giant companies have gone around and around in meetings, negotiations, and now several different courts.

With Google acquiring Motorola, the search company knew it was inheriting a legal battle with Microsoft.  Google was, largely, undaunted by the prospect because the patents Motorola brought to the deal might allow Google to develop its own mobile phones and there has been an adversarial relationship between Microsoft and Google for quite some time.  Google was not thrilled when Microsoft actively entered the Internet search business with Bing and Microsoft was irked when Google created its own browser, Chrome, to compete with Internet Explorer.

While Google might have had some idea of the battle it was in for with Microsoft when it acquired Motorola, the company probably did not anticipate the speed of its first loss.  Two days after Google acquired Motorola, a German court found that Motorola did infringe upon Microsoft’s patents pertaining to text messaging.  The news was not all bad for Google and Motorola; the same court ruled that another allegation of patent infringement – pertaining to localization software – was not actually a valid complaint.

As Motorola and Google contemplate appealing the verdict against them, Microsoft has been playing up the victory in the press.  Microsoft’s tactic is not simply a form of gloating; it is actually much smarter and more professional than it might initially appear.  By actively promoting the court victory, Microsoft is informing smaller tech companies – ones that are not likely to have the resources Google and Motorola have to fight a protracted court battle – that it might be in their best interest to settle similar patent infringement issues with Microsoft, as opposed to allowing them to escalate to the point that further legal action is necessary.

Even though Microsoft won this round in court, there are many more patent fights between Microsoft and Motorola/Google that remain unresolved.

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