Competitiveness Ramps Up Around Patent Lawsuits, Microsoft & Google Fast Friends
A few months ago Microsoft joined the travel-related coalition against Google’s $700 million acquisition of ITA Software, a travel data company vital for, among others, the Bing flight search tool, to which Google later replied by accusing Microsoft of replicating its search results to improve the Bing engine. No one would expect Google and Microsoft to ‘make peace’ for the time being to pursue a common goal: filing suit against GeoTag after the geo-location technology provider mulled legal action against Bing and Google maps customers.
GeoTag has a solid court experience, until now having sued almost 400 companies, users of Google or Bing maps, for patent violation. Google and Microsoft are also challenging in court the patent in charge, Internet Organizer for Accessing Geographically and Topically Based Information, as they consider it should have never been granted.
Patent wars are featuring news headlines in the IT world just as the recent discord between MobGob and Groupon. It all started with MobGob, in association with CY Technology accusing Groupon of infringing a patent they were issued in March called “Method of Community Purchasing Through the Internet.” Google sued MobGob in its turn using a patent it acquired that predates the founding of the company.
When it comes to patent infringement, companies seem to see things in matters of black and white–there’s little gray scale to be had. In today’s era, a patent is serious business; a means towards dominating an entire space, monetizing it and edging out the competition, with one little document. To that end, Microsoft and Google aren’t the only companies taking patent concerns to higher courts.
LG Electronics filed a patent-infringement complaint againt Sony, more specifically regarding Sony’s PlayStation 3 game consoles that last month were retained by Dutch customes authorities for this very reason, emphasizing the competitiveness between the two companies. Bear in mind that Sony had previously filed complaints one month ago against LG’s LCD televisions and monitors. In order to minimize losses, Sony takes into consideration diverting to other shipping points in Europe.
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