

Google's Patent Problems - ddagradi
http://www.marco.org/2011/07/13/google-patents

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mikeklaas
I reject the conclusion that using mathematical constants as bid means Google
didn't take the auction seriously: clearly they had set out a limit and bid up
to it.

Is there any evidence that Google chose not to bid in because there was no
available mathematical constant between the competitors' highest bid and their
internal valuation?

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davidbalbert
I've been thinking the same thing ever since this story broke. I don't think
bidding mathematical constants says anything about whether or not google was
taking the auction seriously.

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gojomo
One account I read suggested Google made the leaps to constants early (and
confused the other bidders with that move), but by the end were simply trading
bids in the auction format's $100-million increments until the other side
outbid them.

I can respect that; they still ultimately bid up to their reserve. Only
earlier, when bidding was below what they expected the final price to be, they
sent a geek-macho "we're still in the play-money range, fellas" signal.

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awaz
May be this was Google's algorithm during the auction:

while(bid < lobbying_cost) { bid = getMathematicalConstant(current_bid); }

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div
I've thought the same thing, except lobbying_cost = legal_cost

edit: Although your algorithm is preferable !

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orillian
After reading through the articles I've seen so far on this, and looking at
the information provided I still do not believe that Google will have to worry
about the patents in the Nortel package as much as some are saying. People
seem to be forgetting that Google’s Android is software, and the bulk of the
Nortel package is hardware related. I'm thinking that Android handset
manufacturers have more to worry about considering the types of technologies
that are being represented in the Nortel package.

That said, as a group they could severely hinder continued success for
Microsoft, one of the top spenders from the consortium, which also requires
their handsets to continue to sell its Win7 phones. If the total cost of
patent royalty cost gets too high they could simply stop supplying Microsoft
with phones to put its OS onto.

If I was a handset manufacturer I’d side with Google simply based on the
numbers. Samsung and Motorola have fairly large stakes in the continued
success of Android handsets with LG and HTC not far behind.

On a side note how many people have realized that Nortel seems to have just
made a bunch of money? I’m basing my numbers on loose numbers that I’ve seen
so correct me if I’m wrong, but Nortel was $5.8bln in debt, raise $2.8bln in
previous asset sales, and now just made another $4.5bln. That looks to me like
a $1.5bln they gain after recouping their debt.

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Lewisham
I don't think acquiring the patent portfolio had much to do with patents
Google actually needed. The idea was just to hold onto enough patents that you
could threaten other people when they come for you.

This is what Sun used to do.

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orillian
Google is DOOMED now that the others have access to these patents seems to be
the big headline, but I do not see that being the case unless Google tries to
move in areas covered by the Nortel patents.

So while Google did not get these patents that as it stands seem to be
unrelated to current Google activities, they did help force the others to pay
a premium for them. It looks like they may have helped Nortel gain enough that
the company might in fact be able to start anew. $1.5bln in seed money is
pretty decent, as long as that does not get liquidated to investors.
Interesting none the less.

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protomyth
The headlines are of course exaggerations to sell ads, but LTE is the next
step and Android just got a bit more expensive to use. The question is does
this reduce the profit for handset manufactures to a point where other OS
options are more profitable.

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dataminer
What I don't understand is why Google was interested in LTE patents? LTE
patents are hardware patents and any phone manufacturer will use a chip from a
vendor who has licensed these technologies. Google should buy Synaptics, Elan
Microelectornics etc. which have patents in touch. $4bn can buy lots of
patents, Google has to be smart and selective in building their patent war
chest to defend Android.

