Microsoft owns patents in Android OS?

[peacefulberry]

I was just reading an article discussing Microsoft leasing out some of its Android patents to other companies. Of course this makes perfect business sense for a company to own a part of the
competition ( you end up the winner regardless!) But I just had no idea...this reminds me of the WWE and how as children we saw these mortal enemies who would fight til the death, but were actually some if the best of friends outside the ring. It sold tickets and made for great entertainment! ... I wonder if some of the other OS platforms own each others patents or even shares of each others corporations?

 

[Kevin N Smith]

I would LOL if MS suddenly revoked googles rights to use these patents, making a bunch of android phones not work.

 

[Eas195]

Great! If MS wins, the Windows family OS will dominate again, or, at least, receiving huge royalties for all devices running Android and Chrome OSes.
I wonder if Windows is everywhere, sometimes...

 

[peacefulberry]

Whoa! It looks like WP central reported on this soon after I started this thread. I didn't think that this would make the news, hence a simple thread started, LOL! Well, at least I know I'm not alone in finding this incredibly business savvy!

 

[peacefulberry]

I would LOL if MS suddenly revoked googles rights to use these patents, making a bunch of android phones not work.

Lol! I think that would spark some sort of tech war!

 

[martinmc78]

I would LOL if MS suddenly revoked googles rights to use these patents, making a bunch of android phones not work.

The real killer would be if Nokia revoked all patent sharing - neither apple, android or BB would be able to make phones as they hold all the patents for basic mobile functions.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

The real killer would be if Nokia revoked all patent sharing - neither apple, android or BB would be able to make phones as they hold all the patents for basic mobile functions.

Bingo! Though, those patents would probably be revoked because of anti-competitive practices.

 

[koolkid09]

None of what you all are saying will happen. This isn't some type of game. Its just business.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

 

[martinmc78]

None of what you all are saying will happen. This isn't some type of game. Its just business.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Of course. Just a couple of "what if" comments to highlight who owns what. There are plenty of companies that own patents for mobiles that could completely change the mobile landscape not just MS and Nokia if they pulled the sharing. But as you said its just business. Its all about the $ at the end of the day.

 

[WanderingTraveler]

(I should contribute something after that mistake)
I believe that Microsoft is merely trying to make Android less competitive. Sounds like common sense.

What they should be doing aside from this is they should try to "convince" the OEMs already working with WP to focus on the platform. The OEMs are Huawei, Alcatel and HTC.
HTC should be an attractive target because of their sloppy Q1 results(though the One is an amazing phone and should pull them out of their Android slump) and you need low-margin OEMs to pull off success.

 

[Kevin N Smith]

The real killer would be if Nokia revoked all patent sharing - neither apple, android or BB would be able to make phones as they hold all the patents for basic mobile functions.

Haha. Why hasn't this been done already?

 

[ag1986]

Haha. Why hasn't this been done already?

You do realise that Motorola designed and built the first cellphone and therefore, by your logic, could stop everyone manufacturing phones except themselves?

Most of the patents held by Nokia et al. are FRAND patents, deemed necessary to build a modern cellphone and so they can't refuse to license these patents, but they can demand and get licensing fees or other compensation. See the Apple v. Motorola case.

 

[ag1986]

Classic MS. Spend money on lawyers, threats and dirty-trick marketing rather than on actually improving their products.

 

[martinmc78]

Classic MS. Spend money on lawyers, threats and dirty-trick marketing rather than on actually improving their products.

That's probably a more than perfect sentence to describe apple.

 

[squire777]

Classic MS. Spend money on lawyers, threats and dirty-trick marketing rather than on actually improving their products.

Yes because MS is tight for cash and their legal division also doubles as their R&D department :roll:

 

[bilzkh]

It's almost as though Microsoft makes more money off of Android OS than Google (who relies on delivering adverts through the OS, but not selling the OS itself).

That said, if MS truly wanted to be a nasty bugger, it could seek to hijack Android from Google (a point it more or less made about Samsung and Facebook's current efforts). Basically, just take Android and build up your own UX, integrate some key features, maybe yank Google Search out in favour of Bing and Nokia, etc. Push that platform to the OEMs for free, no licensing fees, no patent loyalties, etc...and just watch.

 

[mox2284]

It's almost as though Microsoft makes more money off of Android OS than Google (who relies on delivering adverts through the OS, but not selling the OS itself).

That said, if MS truly wanted to be a nasty bugger, it could seek to hijack Android from Google (a point it more or less made about Samsung and Facebook's current efforts). Basically, just take Android and build up your own UX, integrate some key features, maybe yank Google Search out in favour of Bing and Nokia, etc. Push that platform to the OEMs for free, no licensing fees, no patent loyalties, etc...and just watch.

this would be interesting to see

 

[Cleavitt76]

Classic MS. Spend money on lawyers, threats and dirty-trick marketing rather than on actually improving their products.

Interesting perspective. MS has inovated quite a bit over the years and they are behind or paved the way for much of the technology we all use today. In this case, Google is the one that is not inovating as much as they could and instead using unlicensed patented technology on top of open source software that was largely created by others.

Also, how is it "dirty trick marketing" to protect legitamate technology patents? The fact that several major companies have each reviewed this set of patents and agreed to pay royalties to MS says a lot. None of them have fought it. This isn't the same as Apples's "icons with rounded corners" type lawsuits against Samsung. Those were contested from the start and many of those patents have since been found to be invalid by the courts. The patents that MS holds must have some validity or at least one of these companies would have challenged them (Samsung is one of the companies paying MS for Android licensing). MS is not the only one that has issues with Android patent infringment either. Oracle, Apple, and Nokia also have issues with Android. I guess in your world a company like MS is supposed to sit back and watch while a company like Google uses patented technology without paying for licensing.

 

[Ridemyscooter86]

If anything, I think microsoft is amazingly smart with their licensing deals. They could have puled an apple an pissed off their OEM or just give them a good deal and still be buddy buddy. I don't think every OEM would accept licensing deals if MS was asking for absurd amounts of money so MS probably had to give the OEMs good deals. I think its a much better strategy than suing the living crap out of everything, (apple or samsung)

 

[rayf888]

I was just reading an article discussing Microsoft leasing out some of its Android patents to other companies. Of course this makes perfect business sense for a company to own a part of the
competition ( you end up the winner regardless!) But I just had no idea...this reminds me of the WWE and how as children we saw these mortal enemies who would fight til the death, but were actually some if the best of friends outside the ring. It sold tickets and made for great entertainment! ... I wonder if some of the other OS platforms own each others patents or even shares of each others corporations?

The original group of enthusiast whom started the Android platform was tech savvy, they probably didn't worry too much about patents, they just build things the way they seen fit... Luckily the project got acquired by Google... and now it all becoming Google's problem...