Google wants 2.25 percent cut of Microsoft's Surface

@ 2012/11/16
If you thought that Apple was bad in its patent trolling antics, it is looking like Google not only wants its own bridge but will be crowned King of the Trolls.

Since Google bought Motorola as a defensive action on patents, many had been wondering what evil the company could manage on the likes of Microsoft and Apple who had been playing a similar game with them.

Now it turns out that Google wants 2.25 percent of all the cash Microsoft makes from its new Surface tablet along with cash from technologies used by Windows and the Xbox 360.

The patent trial at the US District Court in Seattle heard how Google wants the judge to also consider new and future Microsoft products that implement Motorola's patented technology when he sets the royalty rates that Microsoft should pay for Motorola's patents.

Google claims that since the 802.11 WiFi technologies are critical to Surface, because it doesn't have an Ethernet port or cellular broadband, Vole should pay up for that too.

The amount Microsoft is required to pay could depend on the significance of the particular patent in the final product.

Vole told US District Judge James Robart that the amount paid by Microsoft in licensing fees should be proportionate to the contribution of Motorola's patents to the relevant industry standard, and to the role of the patented technology in the Microsoft products that implement the standard.

According to Geekwire, Google laywers pointed out that Vole was working on its own smartphone, which undoubtedly will have wi-fi capabilities, so it should pay for that too.

Windows executive Jon DeVaan admitted that the Surface uses H.264 video technologies, which are also at issue in the case, covered in separate Motorola patents.

Microsoft said that Motorola's original offer to licence patents to Microsoft for 2.25 percent of the end product price was outrageous and could earn Google $4 billion a year.

It is especially outrageous because Motorola promised to standards bodies to offer access to the "standard essential" patents on fair and reasonable terms.

Google claims that Microsoft gave up its right to a reasonable royalty the moment it started patent trolling in response to Motorola's initial royalty demand. Thus blaming its trollship on Microsoft's earlier trollship, has the world gone mad?

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