Consortium prepares to sue Google over patent infringement

It's another day, which means that another patent lawsuit has been filed against a major tech company.

Rockstar, a consortium that owns thousands of patents, recently filed a lawsuit against Google regarding patents for its search advertising business, as well as those that cover hardware used in Android devices, according to a report by The Verge. 

Rockstar is owned by Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft and Sony. Two years ago, it acquired its patents for $4.5 billion in the auction that followed the bankruptcy of Canadian telecom Nortel.

Since then, the consortium has pursued a path paved by patent trolls. 

"Pretty much anybody out there is infringing," CEO John Veschi told Wired. "It would be hard for me to envision that there are high-tech companies out there that don't use some of the patents in our portfolio."

According to The Verge, Rockstar is focusing on Google because the company once tried to buy many of these patents in the Nortel auction. In the lawsuit, Rockstar argues that Google has continued to infringe upon them, despite its failure.

Google, for its part, has not yet made a decision on how to respond.

"While we haven't yet been served with this complaint, we continue to advocate for patent reform that would address the current flood of patent litigation," a company representative said in a statement.

The fact that Rockstar seems to embrace its role as a patent troll should be cause for concern for tech companies who operate in these areas. Without working with a Phoenix business attorney to mount a defense, they too could find themselves dealing with a lawsuit.

Categorised in: Intellectual Property Law

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