It’s not often that multibillion-dollar tech companies take to the internet to throw elbows at each other, at least without hiring outside PR to do it on the sly. Watching it unfold in public is a little like watching a big family meltdown at a restaurant: Harsh words turn from whispers to shouts, secrets are dredged up, and eventually the teenager storms out the door, stopping only to let everyone know how much she hates them for doing this to her and that she’ll be walking home alone.
That’s pretty much what happened with Google yesterday — only the big fighting family included Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and Samsung. The fight was over software patents, not dinner, and the declaration of independence in miniature didn’t come from an angry teenager, but an angry lawyer:
Android’s success has yielded … a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents….Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation…. Unless we act, consumers could face rising costs for Android devices — and fewer choices for their next phone.
Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond is angry. He’s angry that Google lost its bid for Nortel’s patent portfolio. He’s angry that winners of the $4.5 billion bid, a consortium of tech companies including mobile rivals like Microsoft, Apple and RIM, will probably use Android’s real or apparent infringement patents as leverage in lawsuits against or licensing settlements with Google and Android device makers.
He’s angry that Microsoft makes more money straight-up for Android’s OS than Google does; he’s angry that companies like Oracle, who once stood against software patents in principle and claimed to use them only defensively, have aligned with other companies who aren’t, and don’t, and even sued Google for infringement; and he’s angry that Google, even after buying up patents from IBM and elsewhere,doesn’t have much intellectual property leverage of its own.
The semi-official response to Google’s attack from Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith was so simple, it fit on Twitter: “Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no.”
Microsoft’s Frank X. Shaw later tweeted a screencap of an email between Smith and Google’s Kent Walker where Walker appears to decline a joint bid for Nortel’s Novell’s patents. [See update below.]
The message from Microsoft is clear: we invited Google to be a partner on this. Google wanted all the toys for itself — and thought it could have them.
Update: Note what just happened there? In Google’s original post, they’re talking about Nortel’s andNovell’s patent portfolio. In Microsoft’s response, they’re pointing to a discussion solely about Novell.(Thanks, @maryjofoley, @manan)
Update 2: Google has posted an update to Drummond’s original “When Patents Attack” post, responding to Microsoft’s posts and arguing that a joint bid for Novell’s patents wouldn’t have offered any protection for Android: “Making sure that we would be unable to assert these patents to defend Android — and having us pay for the privilege — must have seemed like an ingenious strategy to them. We didn’t fall for it.”
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