http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8aac206a-a98a-11e0-a04a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1RY053B3s
Google’s Schmidt worried and disappointed over Apple consortium’s Nortel patent win
“Eric Schmidt, Google executive chairman, has criticised Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion for spending richly on patents rather than innovating,” David Gelles reports for The Financial Times. “His criticisms come a week after those companies beat Google in the bidding for a collection of strategically vital patents from Nortel that cover wireless, 4G, data networking, internet and semiconductor technologies.”
Gelles reports, “‘I’m worried and or disappointed that we’ve gotten to this point in the industry,’” Mr Schmidt said.”
Gelles reports, “Mr Schmidt signalled that Google would not be shy about acquiring other patent portfolios at reasonable prices, while building out its own holdings. ‘Now that the value of patents appears to have increased a great deal based on these data points, there are lots of people that have patents that are available,’ Mr Schmidt said. ‘We have a lot of patents. If the answer is tonnage, I think we’ll be fine.’”
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Yet Google had no problem entering the bid, and then bidding the distance to the sun and other nonsense, while others bid sanely and acquired meaningful patents that Google actually needed. Badly. And of course, Google is more than willing to enter in to other patent bids in the future (disclaimer: the kind where they don't f it up.)
Could they not afford it? Maybe it's time to let go of all this "open" nonsense and start charging for the OS. Or perhaps it might not be a good idea to charge for something that isn't entirely yours?
The irony here is just too good to pass up. Was Eric T. Mole using a Nexus S to take notes about the iPhone while he sat around at board meetings? Nope. And we know the rest of the story.
But Schmidt's right to be worried and disappointed. Absolutely. But not because of the boilerplate fluff he mentioned. But because of the tidal wave of patent lawsuits that'll hit his company sooner or later. I wonder how much IP in Android isn't stolen . . .
Google’s Schmidt worried and disappointed over Apple consortium’s Nortel patent win
“Eric Schmidt, Google executive chairman, has criticised Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion for spending richly on patents rather than innovating,” David Gelles reports for The Financial Times. “His criticisms come a week after those companies beat Google in the bidding for a collection of strategically vital patents from Nortel that cover wireless, 4G, data networking, internet and semiconductor technologies.”
Gelles reports, “‘I’m worried and or disappointed that we’ve gotten to this point in the industry,’” Mr Schmidt said.”
Gelles reports, “Mr Schmidt signalled that Google would not be shy about acquiring other patent portfolios at reasonable prices, while building out its own holdings. ‘Now that the value of patents appears to have increased a great deal based on these data points, there are lots of people that have patents that are available,’ Mr Schmidt said. ‘We have a lot of patents. If the answer is tonnage, I think we’ll be fine.’”
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Yet Google had no problem entering the bid, and then bidding the distance to the sun and other nonsense, while others bid sanely and acquired meaningful patents that Google actually needed. Badly. And of course, Google is more than willing to enter in to other patent bids in the future (disclaimer: the kind where they don't f it up.)
Could they not afford it? Maybe it's time to let go of all this "open" nonsense and start charging for the OS. Or perhaps it might not be a good idea to charge for something that isn't entirely yours?
The irony here is just too good to pass up. Was Eric T. Mole using a Nexus S to take notes about the iPhone while he sat around at board meetings? Nope. And we know the rest of the story.
But Schmidt's right to be worried and disappointed. Absolutely. But not because of the boilerplate fluff he mentioned. But because of the tidal wave of patent lawsuits that'll hit his company sooner or later. I wonder how much IP in Android isn't stolen . . .
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