Google vs. Oracle

[agantuk]

Not that they (Sony) had a lot of Android fans after their Xperia disaster

 

[Jaymin]

I read the article. it mentions about some patents & all. What exactly does it mean - Patents for developing apps? I didnt quite get what kind of patents were sold.

 

[rajadeep]

Why on earth were they not interested in part of the consortium? Just to show that they believe in 'openness' (Google style)?


heh didnt quite get ur post... Do u want to say that google is proving their openness by not joining the consortium??? Anyway this could turn out very bad for google ....

I read the article. it mentions about some patents & all. What exactly does it mean - Patents for developing apps? I didnt quite get what kind of patents were sold.

Well these patents run in 1000s & they mostly cover networking technology... Most networked devices today(including mobiles, routers switches computers & laptops with ethernet & wifi ports etc etc) cant work without really using atleast a couple of dozen of these patented technologies... No wonder this deal ran upto $4.5bil...

 

[Jaymin]

So u mean even the usage of these technologies is covered??

 

[rajadeep]

yup u have to licence the technology from the patent holder before using it... Basically means u have to pay them to use it... If u dont they can go to court & have ur product taken off the market... Nokia recently settled a case with Apple over Patent infringement for more than $600 mil... plus they are gonna get a particular amt per iPhone that is sold... Having a strong patent portfolio is a must in todays world... This was not such a smart move by google to let these patents fall into its competitor's hands while they have next to zero patents(being a newer player) in their portfolio...

 

[Jaymin]

I actually knew the implications of having/not having patents. I was just in doubt whether so many patents were actually sold........patents touching the use of almost all technologies in telecommunication.

 

[Sushubh]

Twitter / Steven Levy: Patents now seem more valu ...

 

[agantuk]

That's a never ending debate. If companies don't get to guard their inventions, there would be no motivation for research as the costs behind that wouldn't be justified when someone else comes and uses it freely. They might as well wait for someone to come up with something, rather than waste their time and money doing it themselves

 

[Sushubh]

the problem is magnified when you can purchase companies to acquire their patents. oracle acquired sun to get their java related patents so that they can sue google for android.

 

[agantuk]

Well, the valuation of companies do include IPR, so in that sense it isn't entirely illegal to get hold of the patents owned by a company when they take it over. What is probably needed is regulation over what is a patent and what is not. And what is an acceptable duration for holding the rights. I don't remember exactly, but in the US there are 3 durations - 3, 7 and 10 years. After that it comes up for renewal