Google is at odds with Apple , Microsoft and Cisco over the licensing and judicial proceeding of patent of invention . While Google wants to make the most of patent it will get if its learning of Motorola is approved , the others need to change the agency so - called indispensable patents are license .
Essential patents are part of a standard and licensed under bonnie , reasonable , and non - preferential ( FRAND ) term or sensible , and non - discriminatory ( RAND ) terms . When letters patent - infringement negotiations over what that means fail , Google wants to continue to be able-bodied to use enjoinment to freeze the cut-rate sale of encroach products , while the others want to remove that option .
“ Everybody is really taking positions which suit their own finicky interest , right now , ” said Andrew Watson , chief operating officer and founder of ipVA , a European intellectual property consultancy .
Back in November , Applesent a letter to ETSI(European Telecommunications Standards Institute ) , which was made public this week , detailing the pauperization for more consistence with the licensing of essential letters patent .
Apple ’s suggested term include the hope to not attempt to block the sale of products when talks have failed . Cisco and Microsoft have both back up that position . consumer and the intact industry will suffer if business firm seek to block others from transport products on the basis of standard indispensable patents , Microsoft say in a financial statement on Wednesday .
That is a sensitive estimation , accord to John Collins , European patent lawyer at Marks & Clerk . A court case related to FRAND licensing should only be about money , and not require the terror of an injunction , he say .
Removing the threat of enjoinment would help balance the relationship between licensor and licensee , harmonise to Carlo Piana , general counsellor for the Free Software Foundation Europe ( FSFE ) .
The threat of enjoining is a very sinewy arm , said Piana . When a companionship is develop a new product , it can choose not to apply a technology depending on licensing price , but when the product is already finished , that becomes very expensive , and the patent of invention owners can force the marketer “ to pay up through the nose , ” he said .
Google , on the other hand , “ reserves its right to use any and all juridic remedy against counterparties that refuse a Witwatersrand license , ” thecompany write in a letter to IEEE on Wednesday .
“ All Google is saying is that it ’s get going to take the same position as Motorola would have take away . Google is unexampled to the patent of invention secret plan and is just hedging its wager , ” said Watson
It was Motorola ’s patent of invention portfolio that made Google give its billfold . The acquisition of Motorola would increase contender by strengthen Google ’s patent portfolio , and enable Google to better protect Android from anti - competitive menace from Microsoft , Apple and other company , CEO Larry Page said when the deal was declare in August .
During the on-going patent of invention war , Apple has used patents on user interface and design , which are not essential , to attack the Android camp , while the likes of Motorola and Samsung Electronics have used all important patent of invention to defend themselves .
Last week , Apple had to temporarily remove some of its products from its online store in Germany due to a court injunction in its dispute over substantive patent of invention with Motorola . Removing the scourge of injunctions would sabotage Android ’s attitude , and therefore make Google ’s acquisition of Motorola less valuable , allot to Carolina Milanesi , research frailty president at Gartner .
The use of essential patent of invention against Apple has been a motley bag . Motorola may have rattle Apple with its German injunction , but Samsung is being investigated by the European Commission because the mode its licenses essential patents may be in rift of European competition law .
Apple also suggests that licensing negotiation should get with a “ common basis ” , which should be “ no higher than the industry average sale price for a basic communications machine that is adequate to of both vocalization and data communication . ”
That would be skilful for Apple , because its iPhones are more expensive than a “ a basic communication twist ” . But Collins questions the potency of such a measuring stick , because the last licensing price will still add up down to negotiations between the two involved parties , he said .
Google , on the other hand , wants 2.25 percent on the net price , which would give it more revenue from Motorola ’s patents .
“ Its former expressive style versus new stylus . What I like about the Apple approach is that it does what FRAND was always mean to do , if you pick apart the words , ” sound out Watson .
FRAND was meant to be undefended and filmy , and very easy to understand , harmonise to Watson . So seller are able-bodied to budget the licensing costs , which they ca n’t today , he said .
To what extent ETSI will get affect remain to be experience . But , in general , it hire a very hands off approach to how licensing terms are negotiated . ETSI is not in a position to provide guidelines for commercial negotiation , according to its website .
