Aug 4, 2011 at 11:52am ET by Greg Sterling

Google's mostly ill-conceived patent screed from yesterday has opened the floodgates of discussion about Google's (Android's) vulnerability to third party patents owned by Microsoft, Oracle and Apple. Among the throng of comments and opinions about the episode are a few Google sympathizers, such as Forbes blogger Tim Lee who believes Google should advocate for the elimination of software patents: Unfortunately, the modest procedural changes being considered in the America Invents Act won’t come close to preventing the kind of abusive litigation that’s now plaguing Android. So Google sho [...]

Related Topics: Google: Android | Google: Legal | Legal: Patents | Top News

Google Lashes Out Against Apple, Microsoft Patent “Conspiracy”

Aug 3, 2011 at 5:58pm ET by Greg Sterling

Google's Chief Legal Officer David Drummond has lashed out at rivals Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and unnamed others for waging what he says is "a hostile, organized campaign against Android," using "bogus patents." Drummond asserts that Google's rivals have joined together in an "anti-competitive" cabal of sorts that uses patent law almost as a pretext to attempt to "strangle" Android. (The phrase "anti-competitive" is self-consciously used four times in his post.) Drummond contends that Google's rivals are threatened by or unable to compete with Android's momentum (citing Android's 550,00 [...]

Legal Woes Mount For Google: “Locationgate,” Skyhook Suit And FTC-Search Probe

May 2, 2011 at 8:17am ET by Greg Sterling

Following the revelation last week that the iPhone stored user location data a consumer class action was filed. This kind of disclosure/revelation-class action cycle is now familiar. And because Google also collects location data it is now also the subject of a similar class action (Brown et al v. Google) seeking $50 million in damages. Google says it captures user location data only on an opt-in, consensual basis. Where Are the Damages? As a former lawyer who did a fair amount of plaintiff-side litigation in my past I'm sympathetic to the consumer class action and believe that it has bee [...]

Priceline.com Founder Sues Google Over Offers Service

Apr 22, 2011 at 5:37pm ET by Matt McGee

Although Google Offers hasn't formally launched yet, the service is already facing its first lawsuit. Walker Digital, a private R&D lab that created and launched Priceline.com in the late 1990s, is suing Google for allegedly violating four of the company's patents. The lawsuit, which asks the court for a jury trial, seeks unspecified damages and a permanent injunction. Google Offers began taking sign-ups yesterday in three U.S. locales and technically hasn't even launched yet. The Walker Digital lawsuit was filed in a US District Court last night. Earlier this month, the company file [...]

Related Topics: Google: Legal | Google: Offers | Legal: Patents | Top News

Google Loses Patent Case Over Linux Servers

Apr 21, 2011 at 3:43pm ET by Barry Schwartz

The FOSS Patents blog reported that Google lost an important patent case on their Linux server kernels they have been using throughout the company. Bedrock Computer Technologies was awarded $5 million for Google infringing on their patent (U.S. Patent No. 5,893,120) named "Methods and apparatus for information storage and retrieval using a hashing technique with external chaining and on-the-fly removal of expired data." So besides for Google having to pay the $5 million, which is not much to Google, they may have to modify the current kernels of Linux used on their servers and maybe e [...]

Become a PRO member and see all articles in our Legal: Patents archives!

PRO Members get unrestricted access to all archives - and more!

Get Our News, Everywhere!

Follow @sengineland

Got a tip? Tell us here!

Most Likes
Most Tweets
Comments

Our Stories Being Liked on Facebook

Search Engine Land Sponsors

Advertise With Us

Free Daily Search News Recap!

SearchCap is a once-per-day newsletter update - sign up below and get the news delivered to you!

Click to watch SMX conference video

Join us at an upcoming SMX event:

North America

SMX Advanced - June 5-6, 2012
SMX East - Oct. 2-4, 2012
SMX Social Media Marketing - Dec. 5-6, 2012
SMX Toronto - April 2013

EMEA

SMX Paris - June 7-8 2012
SMX Stockholm - Oct. 15-16, 2012
SMX Munich - Apr. 9-10, 2013
SMX London - May 2013

APAC

SMX Melbourne - Sept. 5-6, 2012
SMX Sydney - May 2013

Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.