The patent wars between tech giants has been heating up over the years, with companies using patents and legal victories as a means to block the sale of devices by their competitors. So far the biggest one we’ve seen is Apple versus Samsung, but it looks like that war will pale in comparison to the upcoming one where a consortium has filed a lawsuit against Google, ASUS, HTC, Huawei, LG, Pantech, Samsung, and ZTE, claiming that they have infringed upon patents owned by them. The consortium is none other than Rockstar which is owned jointly by the likes of Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Sony. The consortium owns thousands of patents which were bought when Nortel filed for bankruptcy, so safe to say they have a lot of weapons in their combined arsenal.
According to the lawsuit, Rockstar claims Google infringed upon seven of Nortel’s patents, while other companies, such as Samsung, HTC, and LG, were accused to infringing upon seven patents related to graphical user interfaces, messaging, notifications, and other mobile-related functions. According to Rockstar’s CEO, John Vesci (via Wired), “Pretty much anybody out there is infringing […] It would be hard for me to envision that there are high-tech companies out there that don’t use some of the patents in our portfolio.” While other companies listed as having infringed upon the patents have yet to respond, a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying, “While we haven’t yet been served with this complaint, we continue to advocate for patent reform that would address the current flood of patent litigation.”
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