Regulators from the United States,
as well as Europe, approved the $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility by Google on Monday and stated that they would continue to keep a close watch on Google to ensure that patents critical to the telecom industry would continue to be licensed at fair prices.
The United States Department of Justice also approved an Apple Inc-led consortium’s purchase of multiple patents from Nortel Networks, a recently bankrupt company out of Canada. Both the European Antitrust Authorities and United States Department of Justice stated that they would continue to
monitor how patents will be used to ensure that they continue to comply with antitrust laws.
In both the United States and Europe, antitrust enforcers are worried that patents that are essential to ensuring communications devices sold by different companies work together are licensed for a reasonable cost. The Department of Justice said in a statement, “The division will not hesitate to take appropriate enforcement action to stop any anti-competitive use of SEP rights.”
Android, which is a part of Google, is currently the top operating system for smartphones, and Google stated back in August that it would buy Motorola for its 17,000 patents and 7,500 patent applications. This was obviously a strategic move as Google tries to compete against Apple and its iOS-enabled devices.
This new deal will give Google one of the largest patent libraries in the entire mobile phone industry along with hardware manufacturing operations that will allow the search engine giant to develop its very own line of smartphones. Google is already being sued by Oracle Corporation for patent infringement with the company seeking up to $6 billion.
However, Google isn’t alone on this front as the European Commission has opened investigations into legal tactics used by Samsung Electronics against Apple and whether or not these tactics breached European Antitrust laws. This move by Google to buy Motorola Mobility came right as the company tried, and subsequently failed, to buy Nortel’s patents.
Source: Reuters – Google gets approval to buy Motorola Mobility
Engadget – US gives its blessing to Google’s Moto purchase
The United States Department of Justice – Statement of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division on Its Decision to Close Its Investigations of Google Inc.’s Acquisition of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and the Acquisitions of Certain Patents by Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Research in Motion Ltd
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