There has been a long going legal war between technology giants including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, HTC and others. The latest in this series of allegations and counter-allegations is an accusation by Google that Microsoft and Nokia have been illegally giving off mobile patents to a technology troll, which threatens to raise the prices of mobile phones and various other wireless devices. This accusation has taken form as a claim filed by Google in the European Commission, and has also been shared with the U.S. Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission.
In retaliation, Microsoft called Google’s accusation a ‘desperate tactic’ by a company that is facing regulatory uncertainty over its dominance in online search and advertising. Microsoft commented that Google “is complaining about anti-thrust in the smart phone industry when it controls more than 95% of mobile search and advertising. This seems like a desperate tactic on their part.” Nokia remained unavailable for comments.
Nokia and Microsoft came together last year when Nokia decided to use Windows as an operating system for its mobile phones. Google’s complaint focuses on about 2000 patents for wireless technologies that Nokia and Microsoft sold to MOSAID Technologies Inc. in September. MOSAID Technologies Inc. is a technology ‘troll’, a company that specializes in extracting patent royalties instead of innovating and developing. MOSAID is sure that these patents have great monetary potential. It has estimated that the total revenue from the sale of these patent royalties will be about $3 billion over the next 10 years. One-third will be retained by MOSAID while the rest will go to Nokia and Microsoft.
The patents that Nokia and Microsoft transferred to MOSAID are said to include a number of patents necessary for the functioning of most mobile devices working on 2G, 3G or 4G networks. Some of the patents cover pieces of software called the Linux Kernel; a type of open source computer coding that was used by Google in building its Android operating system. Google claims that in a 2005 regulatory filing, Nokia assured that patents against software based on Linux Kernel would not be enforced, and that MOSAID has violated this commitment.
