Apple and Other Rockstar Consortium Shareholders Not Involved in Google Lawsuit Decision
Late last month, the Rockstar Consortium -- a group of companies, including Apple, Ericsson, Microsoft, BlackBerry, and Sony, that purchased a collection of 6,000 patents and patent applications from the bankrupt Nortel in 2011 -- sued Google, Samsung, HTC, Huawei and others for infringement of some of those patents.
In an interview with Intellectual Asset Management (via TUAW), Rockstar CEO John Veschi, who was Nortel's chief intellectual property officer before the company went bust, said "It was entirely my call based on the facts in front of me." Shareholders, including Apple, "got an email telling them what had happened after the suits were issued.”
What is important to remember about Rockstar is that it is essentially the continuation of what was previously the Nortel licensing operation – or the one that Veschi would have established if he had been able to see through his plans for the Canadian telecoms company before it entered bankruptcy. Veschi joined Nortel as its chief IP officer in 2008 and by 2009 had already established programmes for both its internet patent portfolio and the one relating to handsets. As a result, he and his team have actually been negotiating with parties for four or five years, not just the two since Rockstar came into being. “The real question is why it took us so long to initiate actions. We didn’t and we didn’t, but there comes a time when you have to. There is nothing magic about it,” Veschi says.
There was some pushback against Apple, after the initial lawsuit filing, from customers and pundits who believed Apple was behind the filing of the lawsuit. This interview would seem to be a response from the Rockstar Consortium, which apparently operates independently of its shareholders, that the decision was entirely up to the holding company's executive team.
Rockstar is likely seeking significant damages from Google and the other defendants, claiming that their patent infringement is ongoing and willful.
Top Stories
Apple today announced that it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, September 14 at 10:00 a.m. The event will take place at the Steve Jobs Theater on the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California.
As with WWDC and last year's fall events, this new event will be held digitally with no members of the media invited to attend in person. Apple will likely provide pre-taped segments for...
Apple will retain the Lightning connector on the iPhone for the "foreseeable future," with no intention of switching to USB-C, according to reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
In spite of much of the industry moving toward USB-C, Apple will not be using it to replace the Lightning connector on the iPhone 13, or indeed on any iPhone model for the time being. In a note seen by MacRumors yesterday,...
The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro arrived in October 2020 in a range of color options, with entirely new hues available on both devices, as well as some popular classics. The 12 and 12 Pro have different color choices, so if you have your heart set on a particular shade, you might not be able to get your preferred model in that color.
iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12
The iPhone 12 mini and iPhone...
Apple may be planning to launch the iPhone 13 on Friday, September 17 and third-generation AirPods on Thursday, September 30, according to an image of an e-commerce app discovered by Chinese language site IT Home.
The screenshot, originally posted by Weibo account @PandaIsBald, suggests all four iPhone 13 models will go on sale on September 17, followed by the AirPods 3 on September 30....
YouTube is planning to stop supporting its YouTube app on the third-generation Apple TV models, where YouTube has long been available as a channel option.
A 9to5Mac reader received a message about the upcoming app discontinuation, which is set to take place in March.Starting early March, the YouTube app will no longer be available on Apple TV (3rd generation). You can still watch YouTube on...
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller sat down with tech journalist Steven Levy for a wide-ranging interview about the smartphone's past, present, and future.
The report first reflects upon the iPhone's lack of support for third-party apps in its first year. The argument inside Apple was split between whether the iPhone should be a closed...
We've seen a lot of teasers about the Beats Studio Buds over the past month since they first showed up in Apple's beta software updates, and today they're finally official. The Beats Studio Buds are available to order today in red, white, and black ahead of a June 24 ship date, and they're priced at $149.99.
The Studio Buds are the first Beats-branded earbuds to truly compete with AirPods...
Wednesday September 25, 2019 12:02 pm PDT by
Juli CloverApple has teamed up with Maroon 5 to add the group's new song "Memories" to the Memories feature in the Photos app, allowing it to be used for photo slide show creations, reports Billboard.
"Memories" will be available as a soundtrack option for a limited time and it is available to iPhone and iPad users running the latest iOS 13 and iPadOS software.
Memories in the Photos app are created ...
Popular writing app Ulysses today received its 22nd major release, introducing new publishing features and additional options for users to customize the visual appearance of their writing environment.
As well as providing a focused writing environment, Ulysses offers ways to publish texts from within the app to various blogging platforms. Version 22 adds the ability to publish to Micro.blog, ...
Serif today announced across-the-board updates for its popular suite of Affinity creative apps, including Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and the Apple award-winning Affinity Publisher for Mac, all of which were among the first professional creative suites to be optimized for Apple's new M1 chip.
"After another year which saw record numbers of people switching to Affinity, it's exciting to...
Top Rated Comments
Google Press release AUGUST 15, 2011 Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility: http://investor.google.com/releases/2011/0815.html
And what happened in 2012 and 2013...
Google charged $14.5M for abusing Motorola FRAND patents in Microsoft case
http://9to5google.com/2013/09/05/google-charged-14-5m-for-abusing-motorola-frand-patents-in-microsoft-case/
EU Presses Motorola Mobility Over Patent Licensing
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323687604578466730481539330
FTC investigating Google, Motorola over FRAND patent abuse
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/06/29/ftc_investigating_google_motorola_over_frand_patent_abuse
FTC staff recommends suing Google via antitrust law over FRAND patent abuse
http://appleinsider.com/articles/12/11/01/ftc-staff-recommends-suing-google-via-antitrust-law-over-frand-patent-abuse
Jury quickly reaches verdict in favor of Microsoft against Google's Motorola on FRAND breach
http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/09/jury-quickly-reaches-verdict-in-favor.html
Preliminary EU ruling finds Google's Motorola guilty of abuse of standard-essential patents
http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/05/preliminary-eu-ruling-finds-googles.html
And Now Google Sues Apple
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/08/21/and-now-google-sues-apple/
Google decides to litigate instead of innovate, sues Apple over Siri and more
http://www.imore.com/google-decides-litigate-instead-innovate-sues-apple-over-siri-and-more
HTC Can’t Sue Apple With Google’s Loaner Patents, Says ITC
http://allthingsd.com/20120612/htc-cant-sue-apple-with-googles-loaner-patents-says-itc/
Google (As Motorola) Sues Apple Over Patents, Seeks US Import Ban On iPhones, Macs
http://marketingland.com/google-as-motorola-sues-apple-over-patents-seeks-us-import-ban-on-iphones-macs-19218
Lol, that's not even remotely true, and five minutes of Googling could have told you that...
I can't tell if you're deliberately trolling, or whether you yourself are actually ignorant.
Historically, Google has never used it's patents to proactively sue people.
All of the patent lawsuits that Motorola has engaged in were started long before the sale was finalised.
Apparently, from their public statements, the point of the Motorola purchase was to help them fend off other patent suits, and reach cross-licensing deals. Whether it's worked or not, or whether it's a good buy remains to be seen. However, Google and Apple are definitely not in the same field when it comes to litigious behaviour.
Cheers,
Victor
You obviously don't know why a patent exists.
If something has a patent on it, and you use it, you have to pay royality, period. In this case you just need to change the name of the company you are paying for. This is not trolling, and Apple and Microsoft are far from patent trolls.
Selling IP is nothing new, a lot of inventors invent something and they decide, years after using it, that they are done. They sell their invention and patents and retire to an Island. Equally, a lot of people still enjoy royalities from patents created by their parents.
This is not much different than those who bought multiple brownstones in Manhattan back in the 70s and now charge millions of dollars in rent every year. I mean afterall they neither built it nor even lived in it, how dare they?
Why not? A healthy patent portfolio is a great investment, I don't see what the big deal is