Google may have simple been tired of lawsuits that are being filed against it. Fortunately, the company is sitting on a pile of cash to deal with this problem: It simply buys patents.
Nortel said that it has agreed to transfer its remaining 6000 patents to Google for $900 million in cash. According to the company, the patents cover "wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patent portfolios. The extensive patent portfolio touches nearly every aspect of telecommunications and additional markets as well, including Internet search and social networking."
Google's announcement did not reflect the excitement at Nortel, but indicated that it was a required purchase to protect its innovations. From the blog post:
"The patent system should reward those who create the most useful innovations for society, not those who stake bogus claims or file dubious lawsuits. It's for these reasons that Google has long argued in favor of real patent reform, which we believe will benefit users and the U.S. economy as a whole."
[…]
"So after a lot of thought, we’ve decided to bid for Nortel’s patent portfolio in the company’s bankruptcy auction."
It clearly wasn't something Google was eager to do from the very beginning, but given its disadvantage of being a relatively young company that is exposed to lawsuits and potentially bogus lawsuits, a patent portfolio is a requirement. I doubt this was the last patent purchase at Google.
I also agree that the patent system is flawed. Every other week we see someone suing someone else because of those dubious patents that are there just for suing others.
Let's all apply for a patent on the alphabet..
There, reading the article answers all...
http://www2.nortel.com/go/news_detail.jsp?cat_id=-8055&oid=100272100&locale=en-US&lcid=-1
Google has entered a Stalking Horse Sale Agreement with Nortel to buy the 6000 or so patents for $900 Million...stalking horse means that there will be an auction (in June 2011) and the highest bidder will win the patents.
If Google really wants to buy these patents, they won't back down from bidding higher than whoever challenges them, they do have the money.
The name of the malware tried to mimick Norton and it was name Nortel (not Nortel this article is talking about).
http://www.2-spyware.com/remove-nortel-antivirus.html
http://www.nortel.com/corporate/alert.html
actually, pattens can be simple ideas. like a screw and a screwdriver simple ideas. lets assume that 100 people can make 1 patent every month each. thats 1200 a year.
you can patent the SHAPE of an object if it has some functionality improvements. 100 people with lets assume a 100k a year salery, comes to 10 mill a year.
these patents may be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than they are selling them for. however the revinue that would come from suing, is a long and counter productive process.
Bullshit. Google has proven over time that they don't want to join the patent trolling crap. This purchase was probably merely a defensive move.
(via http://www.geekwire.com/2011/900m-bid-google-line-6000-nortel-patents)
The company says in a statement, “Microsoft has a worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to all of Nortel’s patents that covers all Microsoft products and services, resulting from the patent cross-license signed with Nortel in 2006.”
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/jul06/07-18UCGNortelPR.mspx
Does this mean that Google is not going to sue any other company over IP, ever?
If Google indeed would engage in patent wars it would be a change from their usual subversive tactics (illegal information gathering ect). I doubt they only want to secure their ground, bet they rather use it as a persuation tool in closed room meetings.
I'd far rather see them pouring money into their engineers who are working no their new OSes and other cool stuff. I guess this is the way of life. But I totally agree with Google in a lot of ways the patent system no longer rewards but hamstrings innovation
When patents like these go up for sale and the wrong company gets a hold of them it won't matter how much money Google puts into software if they are blocked by the patent holders. Someone is gonna buy these patents and we can only hope it's a company that understands that certain technologies are needed in order for innovation to continue and will allow them to be used freely. As far as these patents go the most likely buyers are probably MS, Apple or Google and we are all gonna suffer if Apple gets them so I am rooting for Google and hope they don't get greedy with them.
you screwed up the story mr perry.
http://mashable.com/2011/04/04/google-nortel-patents/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Fyahoo+%28Mashable+Top+Stories+-+Yahoo+News%29
by Ben Parr
Google has agreed to purchase Nortel’s approximately 6,000 patents, a portfolio that includes a wide array of wireless, 4G, semiconductor and data networking IP.
Canada-based Nortel Networks was once one of the largest telecom companies on the planet, worth C$398 billion at its peak during the dot com boom. The stock crashed and burned though, dropping to less than C$5 billion in market cap by 2002. The Canadian company never recovered and filed for bankruptcy in 2009, agreeing to liquidate all its assets later that year.
Since then, Nortel has been selling off its assets to pay back its creditors, and is now selling one of its most valued: its expansive patent portfolio, a century’s worth of IP “spanning wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, internet, service provider, semiconductors and other patent portfolios.” That’s part of why Google has entered into a stalking horse sale agreement with Nortel worth $900 million in cash.
According to federal law, Google can’t purchase the patent portfolio outright; the bankruptcy court has to give other bidders a chance to submit their offers. But it does mean Google is in the driver’s seat to acquire Nortel’s patented technologies. The search giant makes it clear in a blog post that it’s attempting to acquire Nortel’s portfolio as a defensive measure against patent litigation:
“But as things stand today, one of a company’s best defenses against this kind of litigation is (ironically) to have a formidable patent portfolio, as this helps maintain your freedom to develop new products and services. Google is a relatively young company, and although we have a growing number of patents, many of our competitors have larger portfolios given their longer histories.”
Google has been sued on multiple occasions for patent infringement, but let’s be clear: The Nortel deal is all about Oracle, which sued Google last year for IP infringement related to Android’s use of Java (a technology Oracle now owns, thanks to its acquisition of Sun Microsystems).
Things haven’t looked good for Google in its patent defense, so acquiring a comprehensive array of telecommunications patents could give it leverage in the Oracle lawsuit. It also gives Google additional protection from any company that wants to sue it in the future. And with tech companies like IBM and Microsoft being granted 3,000 to 5,000 patents per year, it’s easy to see why Google feels the need to play catch-up.