Review by Digital State, Digital Marketing Agency in Wilmslow, Cheshire
Other than being the world’s most dominant search engine, Google has many other avenues of interest including YouTube and Google Maps. It is almost a year since the nemesis purchased US phone maker Motorola Mobility. The acquisition in May 2012 was Google’s biggest to date at a whopping $12.5bn (£7.9bn).
Back in 2012, Google claimed that rival Microsoft owed the search giant billions in patent payments. However, recently the claim has been rebuffed by a US judge. The original claim last year was regarding technologies used in the Xbox console. Google estimated the payment to total $4bn (£2.6bn) a year although Microsoft had stated that it would pay less at $1m (£647,000).
However, US judge James Robart has ruled that Microsoft should pay Google $1.8m a year.
“The decision is good for consumers because it ensures patented technology committed to standards remains affordable for everyone,” said David Howard, Microsoft’s deputy general counsel.
Motorola and Google are yet to comment following the settlement decision.
When Google bought the leading manufacturer of smartphones, the purchase also gave the search giant access to more than 17,000 of the company’s valuable patents. The current dispute revolves around wireless and video technologies used in the Xbox game console. In the heat of the debate, Google even sought a ban on the selling of the console whilst the dispute was unresolved. However, the sales ban was only briefly imposed in Germany and was soon overturned.
It seems like the spat between Google and Microsoft is likely to continue as other patent battles are currently in play over whether Motorola has charged too much for its use of patents. This dispute is likely to be settled in a Seattle court in the summer.
