EU Puts Motorola on the Hot Seat

From Erika Morphy's article in E-Commerce Times:

These days, the reaction to any complaint about patent infringement — especially in the mobility space — is often an eye roll and a snort of derision. That is the price companies pay when they automatically reach for patents as a weapon to bludgeon their competitors, Ryan Radia, an analyst with Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the E-Commerce Times.

Much of this — on both sides — can be assumed to fall under the category of posturing, he said.

"In general, companies use their patent holdings to extract as much money from competitors as they can. That Motorola and, eventually, Google will use or leverage this patent portfolio to either get more revenue from or exclude Microsoft and Apple completely from their portfolio is not at all unusual. It is how the software patent system has worked for years now."

By the same token, it is in Microsoft's and Apple's best interests to drag out Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Radia continued. It is unclear whether these investigations could derail that deal, especially after European authorities have signed off on it.

"It can't help though," he said.