What does HTC do after purchasing nine patents from phone partner Google? They wage war on Apple, suiting the company for violating patent laws surrounding their recently purchased intellectual property.
The patents in question were first used by Palm, Motorola and Openwave Systems then according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records they were sold to Google before the search giant sold and transferred them HTC on September 1st.
The move is a smart strategic one for Google, by providing HTC with the patents the Taiwanese handset manufacturer and one of Google Android’s biggest supporters was given the ammunition needed to go after Apple. The Cupertino based company is already suing HTC, claiming that Google Android phones ripped off the iOS OS, while manufacturers ripped off iPhone design features.
For their part Google, who entered the year with less than 1,000 patents made a huge move to protect themselves and their manufacturers from intellectual property lawsuits when they purchased Motorola Mobility for $12.5 million. The Motorola Mobility purchase provides the company with various patents used by phone manufacturers around the world, including Apple Inc.
According to Bloomberg:
The lawsuit contends the Mac computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, iCloud and iTunes are infringing patents for a way to upgrade software wirelessly; a way to transfer data between a microprocessor and a support chip; a method to store user preferences, and a way to provide consistent contact between application software and a radio modem.
The International Trade Commission also received the same product complaints involving five more patents which they obtained from Google.
Apple vs. the world, we saw how great that worked out for Microsoft back in their worldwide leadership role in technology, it will be interesting to see how Apple plans to fight back when every mobile phone manufacturer on the face of the planet files suit against them for patents not held in Cupertino.
