Last
blog I spoke about Nokia trying to change the direction of the U.S courts in
order to make it easier to serve permanent injunctions, which means to
completely stop business activities for the infringer's item.
Comparatively, German courts already have the power for permanent injunctions.
More specifically, in the U.S courts can use the demand for a product and its
competitiveness as a reason not to stop the business, while Germany will stop any
businesses if it infringes on a patent without its economic effect.
German
courts told Google Map's defenders to prepare for a permanent injunction.
Microsoft is suing Google for infringing on a “big idea” patent created in 1996,
which patents a computer systems ability to identify local items. This
technology is used on Google maps in order to identify specific locations on
the map. Even though Android, HTC, Samsung, and LG pay Microsoft to license this patent,
Google says that they are not infringing on this patent. Now, the German court
system thinks otherwise and is getting ready to stop Google maps. This is just
one example of what could happen to businesses if permanent injunctions become
more rampant in the U.S. Patents will become more valuable as they will have
more power to stop businesses, and many other business decision will be
affected.
I saw this article on someone else's blog and to add onto it, it's ridiculous how they are attacking Google based on this. Everyone uses Google Maps at some point, and sure Google should be paying to use the patent, but if they say they aren't infringing on it i'm sure they're not because they aren't dumb. In the end if this boils over court and turns into such a big litigation i think Google will end up just paying Microsoft to license it because many people will be left unhappy without the use of google maps.
ReplyDeleteI did read about this and also chose to blog about the topic. I agree with David, but I think it is funny that Microsoft used this claim as a countersuit against Motorola, after they filed four lawsuits against them in Germany. Although an injunction hasn't been granted yet, it definitely would be a great case of karma.
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