All the way in Germany, Nokia and HTC (+ Google) are fighting it out on over three dozen different patents (Nokia filed against HTC)--one of which regards an "apparatus and method for compressing a motion vector field", according to fosspatents. Nokia is asserting the patent against HTC smartphones and tablet computers that are running an Android version 2.3 or higher that have the ability to decode VP8 videos. The story twist: VP8 was created by a company Google acquired. So as usual, Google finds its way in the middle of most headliner patent suit cases. Nokia is claiming infringement by HTC on all of their implementations of VP8 (Google-controlled). Google is participating as a third-party intervenor.
This is the first trial on VP8 technology, and coincidentally enough it took place within 24 hours after the Google-MPEG LA agreement that signed over its VP8 technology to Google. Nokia is able to claim patent infringement on this case because is hold video codec patents that it considers VP8 to have infringed. Nokia isn't the only patent-holder on video codec inventions, so it will be interesting to see how many other companies come out, now that Google is in the ball-game.
I visualize this as a playing field, where you kind of have one bone--and you let the hungry dogs out, and see them fight. Google will most likely have to suffer through a dozen more trials before it can reliably claim that the VP8 patent situation is stable. I wonder if it was worth it.
This is the first trial on VP8 technology, and coincidentally enough it took place within 24 hours after the Google-MPEG LA agreement that signed over its VP8 technology to Google. Nokia is able to claim patent infringement on this case because is hold video codec patents that it considers VP8 to have infringed. Nokia isn't the only patent-holder on video codec inventions, so it will be interesting to see how many other companies come out, now that Google is in the ball-game.
I visualize this as a playing field, where you kind of have one bone--and you let the hungry dogs out, and see them fight. Google will most likely have to suffer through a dozen more trials before it can reliably claim that the VP8 patent situation is stable. I wonder if it was worth it.
Do you know if the infringers are facing injunctions?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see that Google acquires a myriad of different companies in order to hold on to patents. They position themselves as sort of patent trolls amidst a myriad of different companies, purely through acquisitions. This is ironic because their slogan is "don't be evil."
ReplyDeleteYou're so right about the additional trials. Once a company is seen successfully suing there are always copy-cats.
ReplyDeleteso many of these companies own countless patents that it seems like a revolving door when it comes to patent infringement. It would be interesting to know the total number of patents that all these major players own.
ReplyDeleteI like the observation Clinton makes. I would like to get a statistical sense of how frequent and on what scale these patents are being filed specifically by these tech giants.
ReplyDeleteI wrote about this article as well! One major reason why Google will fight for this technology is that it powers many ad-lucrative apps. Google, being a company whose revenues run solely on advertisements cannot afford to let this go.
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