Google’s Motorola haul has 18 anti-Apple patents

MOBILE SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Google has armed itself with 18 prime patents for use against Apple.

In recent months Google has spoken of its need to find a way to fight back against those firms that rely on patents to stifle innovation. Part of this battle is its purchase of Motorola, which, according to Bloomberg, has given it 18 key mobile patents.

This number, though only a small percentage of the 17,000 patents that the company acquired, will help it fight off challenges to its Android mobile platform.

"Any patent owner, before they consider litigation is going to carefully evaluate their patents to withstand an attack," said David Mixon, a patent lawyer at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in an interview with Bloomberg. "You don't want to hold any back. You want to pick your strongest patents."

There might be more strength in the remaining thousands of patents as well, according to the experts, and Bloomberg reports that just a few months ago Google had only around 1,000 patents to call its own.

Google's purchase of Motorola adds the 17,000 already approved and the possibility of another 7,500 that are pending. "There are a lot of sweet patents in that portfolio," added Dean Becker, chief executive officer of the ICAP Patent Brokerage.

Aggressive use of patents was denounced by Google earlier this month when David Drummond, SVP and chief legal officer, said that when companies use patents offensively they are like vultures.

Speaking about legal challenges to Android from competitors, Drummond denounced an alliance saying that it had only been created to grab Nortel's patents away from Google.

"Android's success has yielded something else: a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents," he said.

"Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it. Our competitors want to impose a 'tax' for these dubious patents that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers. They want to make it harder for manufacturers to sell Android devices. Instead of competing by building new features or devices, they are fighting through litigation." µ