Nokia and Microsoft hit out at Google’s latest patent claim

By KRISTY DORSEY
Published on 02/06/2012 00:00

THE bitter battle for supremacy over the mobile internet rumbled on yesterday, with Google accused of being “desperate” and just plain wrong in alleging that two of its rivals are colluding to make money from their patents.

Responding to a complaint filed by Google with the European Commission, Finnish handset maker Nokia said it had a completely separate patent strategy to that of Microsoft, its smartphone partner since early 2011. Their phones, using Windows on Nokia’s Lumia hardware, compete with Android devices running on Google software.

A Nokia spokesman said: “Though we have not yet seen the complaint, Google’s suggestion that Nokia and Microsoft are colluding on intellectual property rights is wrong.

“Both companies have their own intellectual property rights portfolios and strategies and operate independently.”

Microsoft was similarly scathing in an earlier statement, accusing Google of hi-tech hypocrisy.

A spokesman for Microsoft said: “Google is complaining about patents when it won’t respond to growing concerns by regulators, elected officials and judges about its abuse of standard-essential patents, and it is complaining about anti-trust in the smartphone industry when it controls more than 95 per cent of mobile search and advertising.

“This seems like a desperate tactic on its part.”

Google’s European complaint is the latest in a seemingly endless stream of patent lawsuits being filed worldwide as the major players seek to forge a stronghold in rapidly-expanding world of the wireless internet.

Google says Microsoft and Nokia have transferred 1,200 patents to Mosaid, a so-called “patent troll” that makes money by taking legal action over infringements on patents.