As of today, Google has once again lost a patent assertion against a major rival, Apple. The patent, U.S. Patent No. 6246862 on a "sensor controlled user interface for portable communication device" was found invalid. This is the last patent against Apple from Motorola's Oct. 2010 assertion against apple. This is troubling considering the $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility. Today's loss follows a loss in the German courts on Friday 4/19 against Microsoft over a push notification patent.
Here are some details on the patent that was thrown out today against Apple. The patent relates to the feature that a touch screen ignores touches if the user is on a phone call and holds the device close to his head. Google wanted the ITC to ban Apple from importing any iPhones because of this. Google can appeal this decision, but a similar case with similar results for a Motorola case makes this pretty difficult for Google. In short, Google would have to overcome two determined obviousness theories as well as Apples defense.
This goes to show holes in Google's Motorola Mobility patent portfolio. This news is not different to what has happened historically with Google. Google has also recently pulled out some assertion from Apple. On Oct.2 Google withdrew its entire second ITC complaint against Apple. This was an assertion of over seven non-standard-essential patents. This could be that the patents were hard to defend or other more political, relationship reasons. However, in any case, Google is having difficulty in asserting their Motorola patents. They really need a victory to justify the full value of their acquisition.
Google has just been doing bad accross the board. Its purchase of Motorola was really not very beneficial and this goes to show that courts are cracking down on stupid cases.
ReplyDeleteI think this is only one side of the story, it would be useful to compare how much Google was sued for patent infringement before they purchased Motorola and after because it seems like the main reason they made the purchase was for defense. I wonder if the defense is working better than offense.
ReplyDeleteWith Google's purchase of Motorola it gained about 17,000 patents into its portfolio. That seems a hefty number to encourage them to acquire Motorola. But the enlarged patents have rather caused a deficit rather than a revenue. I wonder if there are a couple certain patents that Google was keen on acquiring from Motorola that may come in hand for a tech advancement Google has in mind for the future. Defense for the future?
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