Google slams rivals' alliance
Source: Agencies |
August 5, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
INTERNET giant Google, fresh from losing a bid to buy thousands of patents from bankrupt Nortel, lashed out at its biggest rivals on Wednesday, accusing them of banding together to block the company from the smartphone sector.
In a rare public outburst, Google chief legal officer David Drummond blasted Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and "other companies" for colluding to hamper the increasingly popular Android mobile software by buying up patents, effectively imposing a "tax" on Android cellphones.
Apart from increasing costs for consumers, snapping up the patents will stifle technological innovation, he said.
Drummond said: "Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other's throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what is going on."
He referred to "a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents."
Apple, Microsoft and Oracle declined to comment.
Google - which is facing a US antitrust probe in the Internet search market it dominates - is forging ahead in the smartphone market. But it has been hampered by a lack of intellectual property in wireless telephony, which has exposed it to patent-infringement lawsuits from rivals such as Oracle.
It lost out on the Nortel patents to a consortium of Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion and others, which together paid US$4.5 billion.
Google had bid up to US$3.4 billion before teaming up with Intel, which had made its own had bid of US$3.1 billion, according to a source. Together they bid US$4 billion.
In a rare public outburst, Google chief legal officer David Drummond blasted Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and "other companies" for colluding to hamper the increasingly popular Android mobile software by buying up patents, effectively imposing a "tax" on Android cellphones.
Apart from increasing costs for consumers, snapping up the patents will stifle technological innovation, he said.
Drummond said: "Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other's throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what is going on."
He referred to "a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents."
Apple, Microsoft and Oracle declined to comment.
Google - which is facing a US antitrust probe in the Internet search market it dominates - is forging ahead in the smartphone market. But it has been hampered by a lack of intellectual property in wireless telephony, which has exposed it to patent-infringement lawsuits from rivals such as Oracle.
It lost out on the Nortel patents to a consortium of Apple, Microsoft, Research in Motion and others, which together paid US$4.5 billion.
Google had bid up to US$3.4 billion before teaming up with Intel, which had made its own had bid of US$3.1 billion, according to a source. Together they bid US$4 billion.
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