Taiwan-based Hon Hai, the contract manufacturer of 40% of the world's consumer electronics, signed a deal with Microsoft on Wednesday, April 17. This deal ensures that any Android or Chrome devices made by Hon Hai will lead to a royalty stream to Microsoft. Although FossPatents does not provide a clear cut answer on whether or not Hon Hai will be passing on this cost to Google (likely), the significance of the deal underscores the strength of Microsoft's intellectual property and the simultaneous weakness of Google's patents, especially the lack of value-add that the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio has.
This deal will likely embolden companies such as Apple, Nokia, or even British Telecom to enhance their lawsuits against Google's patent portfolio. Microsoft has minted more than 20 new royalty streams based on their intellectual property since April 27, 2010. Given that the Motorola patents are essentially useless against Microsoft, and that their patents are openly known to have infringed Microsoft patents, Microsoft will likely receive a royalty stream from Google in the near future.
Google has been taking numerous hits in the last few months. I wonder if this scenario will be worse for Google than the injunction against their Maps in Germany.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about this as well. Seems like a huge win for Microsoft and big loss for Google. At what point will Googl'es purchase of Motorola yield some visible gains?
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