Google, occasional champion of Internet rights, is currently stomping all over them

Posted by on Feb 22, 2012

Google isn’t making any friends in the tech community. Fresh off a user-tracking controversy, where it was revealed that Google had been tracking the surfing habits of Safari and Internet Explorer users without their knowledge, the company is again under fire, this time for attempting to ban Microsoft’s products both at home and abroad for the most hypocritical of reasons: they access video on the Web. Specifically, they access video on the Web wirelessly using Motorola patents — patents the Google-acquired company promised years ago anyone could use for a fair and reasonable fee. Only, now their terms aren’t so fair or reasonable.

They’re now demanding a whopping $22.50 from Microsoft for every Windows-equipped, thousand-dollar laptop, and that price doubles for $2,000 laptops. All for 50 patents that have to do with the H.264 video standard. To give you an idea of how ridiculous that asking price is, Microsoft pays 29 companies a grand total of just two cents per device for use of the 2,300 other H.264 patents.

If Microsoft doesn’t pay up, Google will look to squash sales of the company’s products.

Microsoft’s Dave Heiner had this to say in a lengthy blog post this morning:

There is an obvious way out of all this. Motorola should honor its promises, and make its standard essential patents available on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms. Microsoft is certainly prepared to pay a fair and reasonable price for use of others’ intellectual property. Within just the past few years, Microsoft has entered into more than a thousand patent licenses. We know how it’s done.

Microsoft has also filed a competition-law complaint that both the European Commission and U.S. Department of Justice are currently investigating. If Google’s case were to stand, it could have devastating consequences for technical standards everywhere.

Source: Microsoft

Be Sociable, Share!

    Related Articles

    • Cl

      You are a bullshitter and butt-hurt for Microsoft you asshole.

      • porad

        – Google

    • http://retif220.blogspot.com Retif

      it could have devastating consequences for shitty microsoft, and i am glad to hear that. ms started patent wars – so here is fair response

    • Sanddancer

      This seems like a bargaining chip to get Microsoft to stop the ridiculous patent fees they’re charging Android phone makers, which are on the order of $5-$15/phone. By having a patent fee of 2.25% (hey, I can do math and figure out what the deal really is), they can start bringing to the table proper negotiations here.

      • Hthammack

        The patents Microsoft charged Android OEMs for were not FRAND patents you idiot. Learn the difference.

    • http://trollbox.com:3000 gstrock

      about time Google figured out how to get back at MS’ license fee they charge for Android. To paraphrase MS’ own words, “Google takes its intellectual property very seriously.” Now I would like to see if Google can figure out how to extract a fee from MS for every copy of Windows 8 installed on anything.