Mountain View, Calif. — Google is lashing out at Microsoft and other rivals, claiming the corporations are banding together to block the Android parent from gaining leverage in the smartphone arena.
Chief legal officer for Google David Drummond blogged Wednesday that both Microsoft and Apple are co-conspirators against the company, writing, “Microsoft and Apple have always been at each other’s throats, so when they get into bed together you have to start wondering what’s going on.”
He went on cite positive statistics about Android’s activity, writing that over 550,000 Android devices were being activated everyday through 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers. He suggested there was “a hostile, organized campaign against Android by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies, waged through bogus patents.”
A fight isn’t a fight until the other fires back, which is what Microsoft’s general counsel Brad Smith quickly did.
“Google says we bought Novell patents to keep them from Google. Really? We asked them to bid jointly with us. They said no,” Smith tweeted in response to Drummond’s blog post.
It didn’t stop there, however. Microsoft’s head of communications Frank Shaw then posted another crack at the Android developer on Twitter — claiming Google is enraged because the company refused to accept a “joint bid.”
Drummond responded today, saying, “It’s not surprising that Microsoft would want to divert attention by pushing a false ‘gotcha!’ while failing to address the substance of the issues we raised. If you think about it, it’s obvious why we turned down Microsoft’s offer. Microsoft’s objective has been to keep from Google and Android device-makers any patents that might be used to defend against their attacks. […] This only reaffirms our point: Our competitors are waging a patent war on Android and working together to keep us from getting patents that would help balance the scales.”
Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/3p7fpvb (Google Blog)
http://tinyurl.com/3qr9695 (VentureBeat)
