Patent suits are never ending in the tech world as companies that can’t clearly dominate the market on the strength of their products alone at times turn to the legal system to try and beat the competitors. One of the most recent suits in the tech world is a new suit against Motorola Mobility that was brought against Motorola by Intellectual Ventures. Interestingly Google is one of the investors in Intellectual Ventures (IV).
That investor status puts Google in the odd spot of being involved in a suit against one of the most popular Android smartphone makers around. IV claims that negotiations with Motorola have broken down and led to the suit. The company states that it will not tolerate the ongoing infringements. Both HTC and Samsung currently license patents from IV that have to do with Android devices.
IV holds a vast patent portfolio with 35,000 patents that were acquired by purchasing the IP from other firms and inventors. IV is in fact one of the top five holders of patents in the US. Google has an unknown stake in company with other investors including Microsoft, Intel, Sony, Nokia, Apple, SAP, NVIDIA, and eBay.
[via SlashGear]
