Google has filed a lawsuit against an Apple- and Microsoft-backed patent group alleging its “patent dragnet” has damaged Google’s Android platform.
Google says an ongoing litigation campaign by the patent holding group Rockstar Consortium is placing “a cloud on Google’s Android platform; threatened Google’s business and relationships with its customers and partners, as well as its sales of Nexus-branded Android devices; and created a justiciable controversy between Google and Rockstar,” CNET reported Thursday. In October, Rockstar filed suits against Google and other companies using Android over a host of allegedly infringing patents. Google filed a countersuit Monday against RockStar in San Jose, Calif. “Rockstar produces no products and practices no patents,” Google’s suit said. “Among the myriad companies ensnared in Rockstar’s patent dragnet are customers and partners of Google who use the Android platform in their devices, including ASUS, HTC, Huawei, LG, Pantech, Samsung, and ZTE,” it said. The U.S. Supreme Court has announced it will consider next year whether software patents should be eligible in the first place.
