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It’s not often that you hear that Apple and Google—both fighting for utter smartphone dominance—have teamed up on anything, but reports from Bloomberg say it’s the case. And they’re both going in on a half a billion dollars worth of Kodak patents.
Kodak is selling that patents as part of its bankruptcy liquidation, and apparently there are valuable enough to cause Apple and Google to make temporary peace. At least, that’s what Bloomberg’s unnamed sources are saying. And while it might seem like an odd pairing, the alliance makes sense. This way both companies will get some patents, pay less for them, and not have to worry about being sued by a rival. It’s a better bet than paying a fortune to outbid a competitor and then maybe still losing.
Apparently both Google and Apple had put up offers separately, with their own groups of allies. Now, with their powers combined, they can offer a higher sum and have a greater guarantee of snagging the 1,100 patent portfolio. And then they can go right back to fighting for market-share, as usual. [Bloomberg]
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Maybe this could be the start of a communal pool system that all the big guns could join. The combined buying power would mean that they would be able to outbid anyone acting alone and then they could get back to competing on products not patents.
Patent pools are not uncommon, pools are usually made to protect a specific technology such as WiMAX.
From what I heard MS are in on the deal as well.. I pity any one new trying to get into the smartphone race now
Wouldn’t this come under some sort of “Anti-Competitive” or Monopoly laws?
Well, it’s no surprise that Google would do this – but Apple deciding it would be better than just brute-forcing it and using them against Google? I wonder if the recent downturn against them in terms of patents and lawsuits is beginning to combine with shareholder apathy over their recent products to tame the beast?
If they finally stopped doing this nonsense and went back to interrupting the market with products like the original iPod, iPhone and iPad, I think everyone – Apple fan or not – would be happy. It’s wrong to say that they were brand new innovations, but they did disrupt the marketplace and cause a new wave of innovation. It’d be a good thing for gadget fans everywhere for them to go back to those ways instead of just shouting the competition down with a pack of lawyers.
It’s not a sign of anything. Apple have joined “forces” with many other companies in the past to buy large patent portfolio’s. I think the most prominent is the Nortel patent purchase a while back.
This, to my knowledge, is the first time they’ve joined forces with the company they’re out in “thermonuclear war” to use them against, though.
It just seems like a departure in tactics to do a defensive play instead of an aggressive one.