Google and Microsoft have been going at it the past few days over patent disputes. Google recently shot back at Microsoft and revealed that Google had turned down the opportunity to partner up with Microsoft in bidding for patents.
So lets start from the beginning. Google’s Cheif Legal Officer, David Drummond, apparently accused company’s like Apple and Microsoft of participating in an organized campaign to take Google’s Android platform down though patent lawsuits.
Brad Smith from Microsoft then soon revealed that Google was talking a load of crap and that Google was offered to partner up but had turned down an offer to bid for patents together. Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s Head of Communications, posted an email discussing the deal between Google and Microsoft. He even tweeted “Free advice for David Drummond[Google] – next time check with Kent Walker[Google] before you blog.”
Drummond responded by saying, “It’s not surprising that Microsoft would want to divert attention by pushing a false ‘gotcha!’ while failing to address the substance of the issues we raised. Making sure that we would be unable to assert these patents to defend Android — and having us pay for the privilege — must have seemed like an ingenious strategy to them. We didn’t fall for it.”
Frank Shaw, from Microsoft, responded on twitter by saying: “We offered Google the opportunity to bid with us to buy the Novell patents; they said no. Why? BECAUSE they wanted to buy something that they could use to assert against someone else. SO partnering with others & reducing patent liability across industry is not something they wanted to help do.”
So apparently, Google did turn down Microsoft’s offer. It makes sense because if Google did buy the patents together with Microsoft, it would not have helped them against any litigation against Microsoft. But really, does this sort of public bickering really need to take place?
Yeah, doubt this little fight is over. Lets see who says what next!
