Regardless of publicly belittling software program patents and lobbying for patent reform that may make it tough for corporations to make use of such patents in patent-based lawsuits, Google is constructing a formidable arsenal of patents of its personal at a a lot quicker charge than in earlier years. Whereas the transfer could also be perceived as an try to defend its Android cellular working system that is below assault from rivals together with Apple and Microsoft – in addition to to assault them again – it will seem that Google is defending all of its pursuits, throughout quite a lot of markets that it is presently a participant in. MIT’s Expertise Evaluation studies that this 12 months alone, Google is on monitor to be awarded about 1,800 patents, placing Google on the highest 10 patent recipients record, forward of corporations like GE and Intel. Google is now No. 3 or No. 4 on that record behind the likes of IBM and Microsoft. To assist illustrate what a dramatic change that is from the previous Google, in 2007 when the iPhone was first launched, Google was awarded solely 38 patents.
Steve Jobs famously stated that with the iPhone, Apple determined to “patent all of it,” after shedding a $100 million iPad lawsuit. And Apple proved to be the primary opponent in courts of Android, wining a number of favorable verdicts in instances in opposition to Samsung, HTC and Motorola within the U.S. and around the globe.
Microsoft, one other vital Google rival, is reportedly making round $2 billion a 12 months from licensing offers inked with a lot of Android system makers.
Google patents chart versus the competitors | Picture supply: USPTO through MIT’s Expertise Evaluation
It isn’t 2003 anymore, when Google was awarded solely 4 patents all 12 months. Now, the corporate sits on a trove of round 51,000 patents, and it’s now awarded a mean of 10 patents on daily basis the U.S. Patent & Trademark workplace is open. In November 2013, Google was awarded 177 patents. The corporate’s patent conflict chest additionally consists of over 17,000 patents and seven,000 patent functions from Motorola, which have been acquired when Google bought the corporate for $12.5 billion final 12 months.
