Google to commit to offer some Motorola patents on FRAND terms
- 08 February, 2012 15:26
- Comments
Google is planning to send a letter to standards setting organizations, stating that Motorola Mobility's standards-essential patents will continue to be available on FRAND terms after its acquisition of the company, a person close to the situation said late Tuesday.
The Internet giant said in August that it planned to acquire mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility for about US$12.5 billion, in part to acquire patents to help it fight patent infringement lawsuits against the Android operating system.
The acquisition is awaiting regulatory clearances including from the European Commission which is expected to give its ruling next week on whether it is continuing its investigation or clearing the deal. The deadline for submitting remedies to the EC was over on Monday.
Google's decision to send the letter may be linked to its bid for the EC clearance, according to some news reports.
The letter will be sent in "a day or so" to over 12 leading standards setting bodies, the person said, while declining to be named.
FRAND (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) licenses allow companies to develop open standards for systems such as 3G mobile networks by sharing information and technology. Standards bodies typically require that companies participating in the development of a standard agree to license any relevant patents they hold on FRAND terms if their technology is essential to the standard.
"Since we announced our agreement to acquire Motorola Mobility last August, we've heard questions about whether Motorola Mobility's standard-essential patents will continue to be licensed on FRAND terms once we've closed this transaction," a Google spokeswoman said. "The answer is simple: they will," she added.
A reaffirmed FRAND licensing commitment in itself will be a mere tautology that doesn't change anything, said patent expert Florian Mueller in a blog post. "There's no question that anyone acquiring Motorola Mobility will have to honor existing obligations," he added. Mueller said Google will have to address issues such as under what circumstances it will seek injunctive relief in courts based on standards-related patents, and whether its royalty rates will be any higher than those of Motorola.
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
-
Face Time - Interview with John Brennan and Robert DiStefano
-
How to implement next-generation storage infrastructure for Big Data
-
Pfizer's Future Depends on IT Transformation
-
Pfizer's Future Depends on IT Transformation
-
Pfizer's Future Depends on IT Transformation
-
Blurring boundaries: The disappearing gap between work and home life
Call it multi-tasking, life-splicing or bleisure but increasingly, fuelled by advances in technology, employees are blurring the boundaries between home and work. ‘Generation Standby’ employees, never truly ‘switched off’ and always ready to be called upon, are now enjoying, and expecting, greater levels of flexibility and mobility than ever before. Read on. -
Best Practices for Secure Enterprise Content Mobility
To secure mobile devices while enabling employees to share data securely, organisations need a comprehensive and flexible solution for secure enterprise content mobility. A secure enterprise content mobility solution complements Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions and enables mobile workers to easily share data with other authorised users, while ensuring that data is always secure and IT operations are always compliant. Read this whitepaper to learn: How the popularity of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is creating new security challenges; Why MDM is useful, but not sufficient; How enterprise content mobility provides an essential layer of security and control for organisations with mobile users. -
IDC Insight: V-Ray Gives Symantec NetBackup a Competitive Advantage Today and into the Future
Over a decade ago, Veritas software announced NetBackup FlashBackup to address the millions of small files problem, which had been and often remains the nemesis to fast and efficient backup of large file servers. Today, the FlashBackup technology is used to provide a logical understanding of what is stored with a VMDK- or VHD-image-level backup, without the necessity to install an agent inside each virtual machine. Read more.

















Comments
Post new comment