We're the geist in the heist in the deus ex machina
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Microsoft does not want Google to buy Nortel patents
THE LONG LIST of companies objecting to the sale of Nortel's patent portfolio now has Microsoft on it.
Microsoft joins HP, Motorola Mobility and Nokia among others in objecting to the sale of Nortel's vast patent portfolio. Microsoft claims it has a "worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to all of Nortel's patents" and does not want Google to buy over 6,000 patents and patent applications because it fears that licensees will be shut out.
Google bid $900m for 6,000 Nortel patents and patent applications and it is likely that other technology firms, or to put it bluntly, Microsoft's rivals, will mount similar bids. The point of contention is that Google, if it gets its hands on the patents, could terminate existing licensing agreements with firms such as Microsoft.
What Microsoft wants is a rule stipulating that the licensing agreements that are currently in place "must remain enforceable against the purchasers of the transferred patents". So to be fair to Microsoft, it isn't saying that Google or any other firm can't own the patents, but it wants to make sure it can continue licensing those patents rather than be shut out by the eventual patent holder.
The auction of Nortel's patents is due to take place later this month and is likely to raise billions. Nortel was a major networking research and development firm and has thousands of valuable patents.
To understand just how valuable Nortel's patents are, you need to realise that companies are not just fighting over the highest bid, but access to patents even if they don't win the auction. With assets like those, it makes you wonder just how bad things must have been for Nortel to end up in bankruptcy. µ
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"Microsoft claims it has a "worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to all of Nortel's patents" and does not want Google to buy over 6,000 patents and patent applications because it fears that licensees will be shut out."
That's why they went bust, they gave away all their patents for free to possibly their richest customer. WTF! Who signed that off?
If I was a shareholder I would be sueing and hounding the deal maker at each and every company he moves to. By the looks of things he probably went to Microsoft! ;-)
Microsoft (and Apple, and Oracle) seem to only want to play games when they are the aggressors, and the receivers of the benefits of constant lawsuits. When there is even a hint of a possibility of them not continuing to hold all the aces that allow them to continue their threats and corporate bullying tactics, they cry the blues.
Google, on the other hand, has a track record of generally "being benevolent" to other businesses, and innovating and cooperating instead of litigating...a fact not lost on the DOJ. What goes around, comes around. It would be great if Google bought the Nortel patents, and donates many of them to the OIN to help shelter small companies trying to innovate in the threatening shadows of Microsoft and Apple.
Serial litigators like Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle should really be the last people to have access to more patents that they can weaponize in their anticompetitive wars to be the "last one standing".
This looks defensive to me, specifically to protect Android from frivolous patent lawsuits. If Google can get their hands on all those telecom and wireless patents, they can tell Microsoft, Apple, etc., "you can have your phones, that's fine, but don't come trying to sue us or our partners over Android...or else."
Personally, I hope they get 'em. Those patents are going to end up in *someone's* hands anyway, and the Free Software Foundation doesn't have the money to buy them. Therefore, given the behaviour of other companies vs. Google, the Googlers appear less caustic and destructive, especially to FOSS.
And it would help to keep Microsoft and Apple at bay. Those two are downright scary.
--SYG
No need to trot out conspiracy theories.
Nortel, even in bankruptcy, has handed out many, many, millions in retention payments and bonuses. This tells the tale.
Nortel has been run for the exclusive benefit of it's management for more than a decade. They ran that great company into the ground with short-term thinking, quarter by quarter, bonus by bonus.
Ultimately it comes down to having a weak board of directors that was controlled by management.
Disgusting.
"With assets like those, it makes you wonder just how bad things must have been for Nortel to end up in bankruptcy. ยต
This has been going on for years.The Americans have turned us into a Bannana Republic. In North America anyways they can't stand to have any major companies ahead of their tech. They just siphon our resources and force a shut down of any other company that gets in the way. Mark my words Rim (Blackberry) is next on their radar. Prime example was the Arrow jet fighter plane, watch the movie. After they forced the shut down of this fighter development , most of the engineers went to the US and worked for their aerospace industry.
Perhaps Microsoft should not have spent $8 billion on Skype and they could afford the patents themselves.