Google attacks Microsoft and Apple over 'bogus patents'

Google's Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond fired a shot at Microsoft, Apple, Oracle and other companies in a blog post claiming that they were waging and "organized campaign" against Android.

Drummond writes the following in his not-so-subtly titled Google Blog post "When Patents Attack Android":  

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

They’re doing this by banding together to acquire Novell’s old patents (the “CPTN” group including Microsoft and Apple) and Nortel’s old patents (the “Rockstar” group including Microsoft and Apple), to make sure Google didn’t get them; seeking $15 licensing fees for every Android device; attempting to make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android (which we provide free of charge) than Windows Phone 7; and even suing Barnes & Noble, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung. Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it.

You may recall that a group of tech companies including Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Sony recently outbid Google, Intel and others to aquire a portfolo of some 6,000 Nortel patents.

The Department of Justice is currently investigating that purchase to determine whether or not these companies plan to use the portfolo to launch litigation against competitors - namely Google. Word is that the DoJ didn't trust Apple, Microsoft and RIM with the patents - which, given Apple's lawsuit-happy nature, makes a lot of sense. 

Google claims that its initial $900 milion bid for the portfolo was a defensive move designed to protect the company against lawsuits. 

So, if you believe all of this, it sounds like Google has a point. However, Engadget reports that Microsoft promptly fired back at Drummond via Twitter with an accusation of their own.

Brad Smith, Microsoft's General Counsel writes via Twitter: "Google says we bught Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no." We're guessing the truth lies somewhere in between, as it always does.

Frank Shaw, lead corporate communications for Microsoft followed that up by tweeting an image of an email exchange between Brad Smith and Kent Walker (Google's General Counsel) that appears to corroborate those claims.

The plot thickens, as they say.

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