Google Files ‘Frivolous’ EC Patent Claim Against Nokia And Microsoft
Companies reject Google’s claims of patent abuse and highlight search giant’s own antitrust problems
Google has reportedly filed a complaint with the European Commission, accusing Nokia and Microsoft of conspiring to use their patents against rivals.
Nokia and Microsoft signed a strategic partnership in February 2011 which agreed that the Finnish manufacturer would use the Windows Phone platform for its smartphones, but both have denied the allegations, according to Bloomberg.
Some have suggested that the filing is merely intended to distract from antitrust allegations made against Google and it has emerged that the same complaint has previously been thrown out by the United States International Trade Commission (ITC).
‘Hail Mary pass’
Google claims Nokia and Microsoft transferred 2,000 patents for assertion to intellectual property firm MOSAID, a company which Google labels a ‘patent troll’. The patents apparently relate to industry standards for wireless technology and are ones that Microsoft has previously pledged not to use to block competition.
Microsoft has rejected the claims, stating Google hadn’t responded to concerns about its own abuse of patents.
“Google is complaining about patents when it won’t respond to growing concerns by regulators, elected officials and judges about its abuse of standard-essential patents, and it is complaining about antitrust in the smartphone industry when it controls more than 95% of mobile search and advertising,” a Microsoft spokesperson told TechWeekEurope. “This seems like a desperate tactic on their part.”
Motorola Mobility, which is now owned by Google, is currently the subject of a formal investigation by the EC over claims from Apple and Microsoft that it was not offering its standards-essential patents under fair, reasonable and non discriminatory terms.
Analyst Florian Mueller has suggested the Google complaint is a smokescreen against these allegations and adds that the ITC saw no evidence of anticompetitive conduct when it was presented to it.
“Google’s complaint comes down to transparent diversionary tactics,” said Mueller. “Instead of addressing the European Commission’s concerns, especially the ones concerning Motorola (which the ITC and FTC apparently share), Google makes the proverbial Hail Mary pass and attempts to conflate the serious issues surrounding its own conduct with a conspiracy theory that the ITC already threw out.”
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