Last week I wrote about Nokia suing Google and how
the courts cut the amount of patents infringements for the case in half. While
another case refused to add more cases to an already large portfolio of
infringements. This week I will talk about the opposite, increasing the amount
of infringement to a case by consolidating. Skyhook has two pending cases
against Google that will be consolidated into one. The first case in 2010 was
for patent infringement of location positioning software and for anti-competitive
conduct. While the one in 2012 is another 9 patent infringements targeting
Google maps ability to use geolocation and Wi-Fi.
One big down side for Skyhook
in this case is that they will not go to court until 2014. It is amazing how a
case that originally started in 2010 can take four years to be started. This is
yet another example of the business trend of companies (especially Google)
infringing on patents and not waiting for the consequences until the patent is
actually worth something in the market. However, the time will come when Google
will have to settle with Skyhook. This shows how big companies can just infringe
on patents and not worry about the consequences until later.
Nice picture Dove, and very true: big companies such as Google are afforded the luxury of fighting these patent wars whereas it can put smaller companies out of business. It's perhaps a flaw of the system, and has created a "market" for patent trolls.
ReplyDeleteI like your post. This is the first time that I hear that a company wait for several years to sue a big company. I feel like that is another approach as "investment".
ReplyDeleteI guess this is where the "$5 million to sue" rule comes from. Costs of lawyer, court dates, and not to mention opportunity costs. It's crazy!
ReplyDeleteinteresting and enlightening blogpost. it's crazy how people invest so much in these patent disputes, assuming they are rational, i guess it means the gains involved are probably huge.
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