Did you think that the patently insane suits surrounding Android had been curtailed now that Apple’s litigious pursuits in The US and Australia have been set back? Think again. This morning British Telecom, one of the largest telecommunications conglomerates in the world, filed suit against Android creator Google in Deleware, United States. The company asserts that Android infringes upon six key patents, mainly involving navigation and location-based operations.
Android has been a battlefield of patent litigation for the last year, but this case is fairly unique: BT is targeting Google directly, instead of an individual manufacturer as Apple and Microsoft have done so far. Many speculate that OEMs had been targeted instead of Google because their smaller size would make them easier to fight with in court, and indeed, many suits have already ended in various settlements. BT is one of the only major corporations to sue Google directly, which may allow Google to bring the considerable strength of its own legal team to bear in the current weorldwide patent debacle.
The myriad of patent infringement cases being played out all over the world are simply too numerous to mention, but Apple’s cases against Samsung and HTC have taken the spotlight in the United States. A federal judge overturned a requested sales ban of Samsung’s Galaxy line of products, and the case against HTC has yet to be decided. Microsoft is suing Barnes and Noble for its Nook line of tablets, after securing licensing shakedowns deals with HTC, Samsung, Asus and various other manufacturers. Oracle is one of the only other companies to sue Google directly, with the former claiming that Android infringes upon its Java licenses.
[via Telegraph.co.uk]
Crazy stuff yet again in legal land, but by the way they are not know as British Telecom any more, since 1991 they are now the BT group or simply just BT……;)