Google: Patent war is assured destruction

Google Inc General Counsel Kent Walker said the smartphone industry is using patents in an arms race that hurts consumers, leaving the company trying to "sort through the mess" of litigation.

"It's hard to find what's the best path -- there's so much litigation," Walker said in an interview. "We're exploring a variety of different things."

Google is seeking to buy patents that would put it on a level plane with its rivals, and the company will continue to push to have the US Patent and Trademark Office take a closer look at issued patents that are being used in litigation, Walker said. Congress and the Federal Trade Commission also need to do more to rein in software patents and lawsuits, he said.

"The tech industry has a significant problem," Walker said. "Software patents are kind of gumming up the works of innovation."

Google, which had $39.1 billion in cash and short-term investments as of June, put in an initial $900 million offer to buy the patents of bankrupt phone-equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp. It was outbid by a group that includes Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Research In Motion Ltd, which all make devices that compete with phones running Google's Android operating system.

More discipline?
Walker declined to say whether Mountain View, California-based Google will bid on InterDigital Inc, the digital-imaging patents of Eastman Kodak Co or any other specific portfolio. He said it's unclear if the $4.5 billion winning bid for the Nortel patents is a sign that other sales will be equally large.

"We want to be disciplined about how we approach all this stuff," Walker said. "We're looking for a reasonable alternative, but we want to make sure Google and the companies Google partners with aren't shut out of the opportunity to bring great new products and features to consumers."

Google's Android software is now the most widely used mobile operating system, with 38.9 per cent of the worldwide smartphone market, compared with 18.2 per cent for Apple's iPhone, according to research firm IDC.

Apple has patent cases against Samsung Electronics Co, HTC Corp and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc over their Android-based phones, and each of them has filed patent suits against Apple. Microsoft and Motorola Mobility also have filed patent suits against each other, and the Redmond, Washington-based software maker has a pending complaint against Barnes & Noble Inc over the Nook reader.