The recent lawsuits brought by Apple to the manufacturers of Android terminals seem to have caused problems within the governing body of the Google company. Yesterday the SVP (Senior Vice President) and CLO (Chief Legal Officer) of Google, David Drummond, published an article on the official blog of the Google company in which he accuses Apple, Microsoft and other companies of running a campaign to intimidate manufacturers of Android terminals. The article is long but it is focused on the recent patent war in which many companies got involved, but Google is talking about a coalition formed against Android terminal manufacturers. Basically, Google explains the fact that Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and others have started to purchase the patents of some smaller companies in order to use them against Google and Android terminal manufacturers.
They're doing this by banding together to acquire Novell's old patents (the "CPTN" group including Microsoft and Apple) and Nortel's old patents (the "Rockstar" group including Microsoft and Apple), to make sure Google didn't get them; seeking $15 licensing fees for every Android device; attempting to make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android (which we provide free of charge) than Windows Phone 7; and even suing Barnes & Noble, HTC, Motorola, and Samsung. Patents were meant to encourage innovation, but lately they are being used as a weapon to stop it.
You can find the whole story here and you have detailed there some reasons why Google is crying now after copying the technologies of others and does not find a method to solve the problem. When Google stole ideas from others everything was ok and Android grew but now when certain companies use their patents to force Google to pay for the use of technologies, everything is wrong. It is true that Apple is running a tough campaign against some Android terminal manufacturers, but it has reasons to do so and everyone noticed how Google understood to "innovate" by launching an operating system and some terminals that were not 100% made by them.
If there really is a coalition formed against those from Google, the acquisition of patents from various companies in order to sue Android terminal manufacturers is only a logical step. Google took some risks when it produced Android OS, Android terminal manufacturers took some risks when they copied the designs of others and now they all point the finger at the "bad guys" who demand their right, legally.
