Google buys Motorola Mobility
Google makes bid for Motorola Mobility and it's Patents
Yesterday, 8-15-2011. Google announced that it had agreed to buy Motorola Mobility to, as CEO Larry Page puts it, Supercharge Android. Along with the mobile phones and other technology another key component of the deal is the acquisition of the Motorola Patent portfolio.
Motorola Mobility's patent holding include:
- Over 24,000 patents and pending patent applications worldwide
- 5,000 patents and 1,500 pending patent applications In the US market alone
- Motorola Mobility also owns subsidiary companies that have their own patents, including General Instrument, Inc.
Page reiterated Googles belief that "Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android." Page also stated that "Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies."
Motorola Mobility is involved in patent infringement litigation with suits pending versus competitors such as Microsoft, Apple, and TiVo as well as more than two-dozen pending suits as defendants against non-practising patent holders.