The loss that Google has faced in its bid for the $4.5 billion patent portfolio of Nortel Networks last week has led many to believe that the internet search giant will be in search of other inventions in order to build up its stock of patents as a protection against the lawsuits which target its Android platform. Dean Becker, the CEO of ICAP Patent Brokerage, the largest patent seller in the world, said that there are many great portfolios which are up for sale. He added that every operating company is in the market because of the distraction, expense and the potential financial risk of being subject to patent litigation.
Google, which has $36.6 billion in cash and securities at the moment, is increasing its efforts in buying patents in order to create a disincentive for companies to file a lawsuit for the apprehension of being subject to a similar case. The Nortel patent auction held last week, which was the biggest of its kind, followed the $900 million offer made by Google in April for buying more than 6000 patents which the Canadian phone maker held after filing for bankruptcy protection in 2009.
Even as Google withdrew from the proceedings as the bids rose in prices, Ron Epstein of IP Group says that the company will keep looking for more opportunities, especially for patents concerning mobile phone technology. According to the US Patent and Trademark Office records, winning the Nortel portfolio would have increased the patent holdings of Google almost by nine fold from the 701 patents that the company currently owns. This increase would have given the search engine giant more protection against lawsuits, the number of which has gone up since Google moved to areas such as mobile and desktop operating systems in order to increase sales.
Google has been directly sued by Oracle, whereas Apple has sued smartphone manufacturers, including HTC and Samsung, which use Google’s Android OS in their handsets. Even Microsoft has demanded revenue for licensing its technology from Android based products manufacturers and has also filed a trade complaint which seeks to block the import of Barnes & Noble’s Android based Nook reader in the US. The Android OS is an open source program which was introduced back in 2007 and relies on certain nonproprietary features which weren’t created by Google and permits the developers to modify its code.
