Chapter 773 Patent Litigation
After the Devonshire arrived in New York, Barron returned to his manor on Long Island and saw Ivanta waiting here.
The reason why I did not return to London, but came directly from Colo to New York, is because Ivanta has more important things...
"Since last month, we We have successively received lawsuits against patents from companies including Apple, Microsoft and Oracle..."
After the two hugged and kissed each other after being separated for several months, Ivanta couldn't wait to tell Pakistan in detail. Lun started talking...
The trouble this time comes from Android Company, which is owned by IC Capital. As Ivanta said, Android Company has encountered a series of patent disputes recently, which makes Ivanta and the management of Android Company very worried. It's a headache.
After all, it can be said that the current Android system is making rapid progress around the world. It has even surpassed Apple's iOS system and ranked first in the smartphone market (excluding Nokia's Symbian system). .
The following are Apple's iOS system, Microsoft's Windows system and Google's GOS system.
Yes, in Barron’s previous life, the Android system owned by Google was also besieged by similar patent lawsuits. Companies including Apple, Microsoft, and Oracle filed lawsuits against companies in the Android system camp. Patent Litigation.
It’s just that the Android system now belongs to IC Capital, and the GOS system launched by Google has lagged behind Microsoft’s Windows system even in terms of user share. Naturally, the goals of these companies are Targeting the Android company that leads in market share.
“Our current leading market share is due to our first-mover advantage and our free and open licensing. But if we ultimately lose these patent lawsuits, we will definitely need to pay patent fees to those companies. With our current number of users, this patent fee is definitely unbearable by the Android company. It will inevitably need to charge mobile phone manufacturers, causing the cost of the Android system to rise..."
As Ivanta said, In some recent media, there have even been articles asserting that in the future the Android system may change from being initially free and open to becoming the most expensive smartphone operating system in history.
The reason why these companies have launched lawsuits against Android companies and mobile phone manufacturers using the Android system is naturally because of the rapid development of the Android system - it can be said that in addition to Apple and Nokia, other mobile phone manufacturers or More or less, smartphones based on Android are being launched.
So Apple and Microsoft are naturally unable to sit still. They are all competitors of Android in terms of mobile operating systems.
Especially for some "emerging brands" that launch Android mobile phones, such as Honor Electronics, Meizu, Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo and other brand mobile phones, they can file lawsuits against these brands on some patents.
Among them, the least threatened one is probably Honor Electronics. After all, Barron, who has the foresight to do so, has already obtained nearly 20,000 patent authorizations from Philips.
However, the problem is that this can only ensure that Honor Electronics will not be affected by these patent lawsuits. After all, Honor Electronics obtained patent authorization instead of the ownership of these 20,000 patents...
< br> Therefore, at most we can only guarantee that Honor Electronics’ launch of Android phones will not be affected. Other mobile phone manufacturers will still be subject to related patent litigation.
To solve the current situation, the Android company itself needs to obtain more mobile phone patent ownership. Only in this way can mobile phone manufacturers launching Android mobile phones be protected from patent litigation.
“In the previous patent auction of Nortel Networks Canada, six companies including Apple and Microsoft jointly acquired more than 6,000 patents and patent applications from Nortel Networks for US$4.5 billion. We Missing this opportunity also puts Android companies in a disadvantageous position..."
Ivanta's words made Barron nodded. Regarding the matter of Nortel Networks, Barron was a little careless. In his previous life, this incident happened in 2011, but he did not expect that Nortel Networks, a Canadian telecommunications provider, would be affected in some unknown way. This year they put their patents on the auction block.
As a result, a consortium composed of six companies including Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM and Sony, directly signed a deal with Nortel Networks for US$4.5 billion in cash. A sale agreement was reached.
Among the more than 6,000 patents sold by Nortel Networks this time, they have 7 of the 105 core patents in 4G communication technology, which is at the same level as Qualcomm and Sony.
This is what makes Barron unhappy. It seems that this transaction has obviously bypassed the Android company. Behind the scenes, it is not that simple.
According to data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple has more than 4,000 patents in the United States; Microsoft has 18,000 patents. Compared with these two companies, Google is at a huge disadvantage...
"I heard Motorola is going to be split up, so we could try to buy it Our mobile phone department, so that by obtaining their patent library, we can solve the problems that Android companies are encountering now..."
In Barron's previous life, Google also encountered similar problems. These patent lawsuits were ultimately resolved through the acquisition of Motorola's mobile handset division.
Now it looks like Android companies need to do this again.
Indeed, although it has not been officially announced, through many messages, Barron and Ivanta have already known that Motorola intends to split up, because this is nothing new...< br>
In fact, as early as 2008, Motorola had internally proposed a spin-off...
Speaking of which, 2008 was the gloomiest year for Motorola. After the dismal 2007, the company in 2008 Motorola was in trouble - at the end of February 2008, its stock price fell below $10, the lowest level the company had seen in years.
According to statistics, Motorola's mobile phone business department lost approximately US$5 billion in the three years from 2006 to 2008. At that time, its mobile phone business had become Motorola's heaviest burden.
Well, it seems that this is still the case. After all, although Motorola has also launched Android phones, they have not focused on it. Instead, they are one of the more active mobile phone manufacturers that support Google's GOS system.
Reality has proven that their vision is indeed not very good. Now the market share of Google's GOS system is not even as high as Microsoft's Windows system. So one can imagine the situation of Motorola's mobile phone business...
In Barron's previous life, Motorola would be officially split into two new companies - Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions - early next year.
After the split, Motorola Mobility (MMI) consists of the mobile terminal and home broadband business departments of the original Motorola company.
On the other hand, Motorola Solutions (MSI), in addition to its two main businesses of public safety solutions represented by TETRA and mobile computing technology centered on RFID, will also provide data collection, comprehensive Command and control communications, wireless LAN and other services.
However, it is obvious that with Motorola's current situation, this split must be brought forward. Their shareholders are eager to get rid of the burden of Motorola Mobility early!
(End of this chapter)