Motorola Mobility is being sued by a patent holding company that is partially funded by Google. This lawsuit is one of the many innovation-stifling mobile patent disputes currently engulfing the smartphone industry.
Intellectual Ventures has accused Motorola of using technologies pertaining to six patents owned by them without license. These patents relates to file transfers, and updates and remote data management. According to Intellectual Ventures, they and Motorola Mobility have been in talks since January 2011, but were unable to reach a licensing agreement.
While no Google cash is being used in this lawsuit against Motorola, some experts has questioned Google’s commitment and ability to defend their Android partners – or in this case, a possible future Google-owned bed fellow. Google is in the process of acquiring Motorola Mobility.
Intellectual Ventures was founded by former Microsoft chief technology officer, Nathan Myhrvold. They own around 35,000 patents relating to technology but do not manufacturer products themselves, and has succeeded in raising over US$5 billion from companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Nokia and of course, Google. Shane Robinson, CTO of Hewlett Packard has described them as a patent troll.
Via BBC News