Google files mobile commerce regulatory complaint in Europe regarding use of patents

Mobile Commerce

Mobile Commerce

The search engine giant has accused Nokia and Microsoft of using its patented technology.

Google has filed a regulatory complaint in Europe which has accused Microsoft and Nokia of illegally using its mobile commerce patents which has led them to generate billions of licensing fee dollars, threatening to send the prices of wireless devices skywards.

The complaints were made to the European Commission, the continent’s main regulator.

The same complaints were also made with the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Justice Department.

Representatives of Nokia Corp have not made themselves available for comment on the subject. Similarly, Microsoft Corp. representatives have claimed that the accusations being made about the company are nothing more than a “desperate tactic” made by a company that will be facing regulatory questions regarding its digital advertising and online search marketplace dominance.

This most recent mobile commerce attack made by Google against the two other companies is only the latest in a series of battles among the various giants in the technology industry, as they grasp for the upper hand in a fast moving and rapidly growing mobile computing marketplace. Most of the attacks thus far have occurred within the courtrooms, where suits and countersuits have made patent infringement accusations. They have already been filed by Microsoft and Nokia, as well as Apple, Oracle, Samsung, HTC, and others.

Clearly, Google is not alone in this strategy within the war of the mobile commerce marketplace.

Microsoft and Nokia have been working together since 2011, when the mobile device manufacturer started using the Windows operating system on its smartphones.

The most recent complaint filed by Google is geared toward 2,000 different wireless patents that were sold by Microsoft and Nokia in September 2011, and which were purchased by MOSAID Technologies, Inc. That company is one that uses intellectual property in order to collect royalties, a type of practice that has earned the companies that use them the name of “trolls”.

According to MOSAID, the ownership of these patents will generate over $1 billion in revenue over the next ten years. Its agreement with Microsoft and Nokia states that it can keep one third of the revenues that it creates over mobile commerce and other channels.

 

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