Google Files Antitrust Complaint Against Microsoft, Nokia

x0d writes with news that Google filed an EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft and Nokia on Thursday, claiming they are using proxy companies to make smartphone-related patent claims in an attack on Google's Android business. From the article: "Google also plans to share its complaint about patent 'trolls' with U.S. competition regulators. The Internet-search giant alleges that Microsoft and Nokia have entered into agreements that enable entities such as Canada-based Mosaid Technologies Inc. to legally enforce their patent rights and share the resulting revenue. Google, which hasn't been sued by Mosaid or related firms, described its filing with European regulators as a pre-emptive measure against a developing legal hazard for Android partners. The threat is that if phone makers perceive a significant legal risk in using Android, they may opt instead for Microsoft's Windows Phone software."

Comments

Thank Mr. Steve Jobs

[Anonymous Coward]

Just remember we have Steve Jobs to thank for this whole mess of mobile patent wars. Yes, him.

“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said in Isaacson’s book, Steve Jobs. “I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.” http://www.generalpatent.com/remembering-steve-jobs

Re:Hey

[mclaincausey]

Are you joking or have you just not been paying attention? Don't you remember that they doctored search results to push their services? Don't you think that exercising a monopoly in one area (search) to attack other markets (social network, business ratings, group discounting, etc) is anticompetitive and antitrust? Remember when Yelp! got popular, and Google made Places, duplicated some of Yelp!'s data, and then pushed Yelp! results down below Places results? What about their strong-arming handset manufacturers to kick Skyhook to the curb?

There is a rich public record of Google abusing their search monopoly.