Google's counsel speaks out on patent wars

Law.com says. But that narrative continues to be undercut by what has proven to be the top tech story of 2011: the battle over mobile technology patents.

In a recent interview with the San Franciso Chronicle, Google patent counsel Tim Porter discussed the ongoing patent spats over its Android smartphone operating system, which has led to both legal and online sparring between the Web-search giant and such industry heavyweights as Apple and Microsoft.

Since Microsoft has been a pioneer in its hay days, it owns a number of patents used by many smartphone manufacturers in the market, MSN News reports. In fact, the software giant earns hundreds of millions of dollars every year by licensing its products to companies that manufacture Android devices. Of course, Microsoft views the deals as being absolutely fair.

Google and its counsel think differently. Porter states: “When their (Microsoft) products stop succeeding in the marketplace, when they get marginalised, they use the large patent portfolio they've built up to get revenue from the success of other companies and products.” According to him, a patent war is hardly doing anything except eating up resources and time, hampering the development and growth of new and innovative technologies.

According to TechFlash, in a Q&A published on Sunday on SFGate, Porter said Microsoft has been marginalised by the success of Android, and has sought to use patent claims to catch up.

Porter also said the “current system is broken, and there are a large number of software patents out there fuelling litigation that resulted from a 10- or 15-year period when the issuance of software patents was too lax”.