Patents stifle competition: Google

The quest to snap up patents is now a modern-day mobile industry gold rush that may hinder innovation, a Google official says, as the company weighs its investments to shore up its Android OS, writes Mobiledia.

With nearly every major mobile company now involved in a patent lawsuit, companies now rush to buy patents to help protect them in court, said Kurt Walker, Google senior VP and general counsel in an interview on Monday.

As a result, patents sell for record amounts of money, and whoever holds the most patents may hold the power when it comes to releasing new mobile technology and manufacturing current mobile devices, claims Walker.

Google, whose Android mobile operating system has been targeted in at least six legal complaints, is seeking to buy intellectual property that could be used as a defence against litigation, reveals Bloomberg.

Google, the world's largest Internet search company, is also seeking to curb abuses of the system, calling on Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to rein in lawsuits, and asking the US Patent and Trademark Office to take closer looks at patents being used in litigation, Walker said.

“The tech industry has a significant problem,” he said. “Software patents are kind of gumming up the works of innovation.”

The Android system is a free, open-source program that relies on some non-proprietary features Google didn't create and allows outside developers to modify the code, says Mercury News.com.

That has left the company vulnerable to claims that it built Android on the backs of research done by other technology companies.

“A patent is a patent and you may not agree with it, but it's the law,” says Will Stofega, a programme manager at researcher IDC. “It's a weakness for Google and everyone's acknowledged it. The competition is so fierce and so brutal, any perceived weakness is going to be found out and you're going to pay for it, in court or wherever.”