US: Tech giants go to war over Android patents

A group of tech conglomerates self-proclaimed as the “Rockstar Consortium” filed a lawsuit late last week against several rivals, including Google and Samsung, over accusations of patent infringement regarding Android-related patents.

Reports say the lawsuit was filed by the consortium made up of Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Sony and others against companies that offer Android products, including HTC, Huawei, LG, Samsung, ZTE, Pantech and Asus.

The defendants are accused of infringing on patents owned by Rockstar, acquired from Nortel in 2011 for $4.5 billion, beating out rival bidder Google. The patents reportedly cover 4G data networking, wireless, Internet and other portfolios for mobile devices.

The patent lawsuit comes about six months after Google submitted comments to the US Federal Trade Commission over concerns the company has for so-called patent trolls, which are companies that acquire patents for the sole purpose of launching lawsuits against companies that infringe on those patents, usually essential to the function of various products.

Full content: PCMag

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