Google on Ulitzer

Evidently seeking sympathy, Google's chief legal officer David Drummond has taken to the air waves again, this time casting Android as the victim of "a hostile, organized campaign...by Microsoft, Oracle, Apple and other companies waged through bogus patents."

"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 [you confirming that Reuters piece, David?]; attempting to make it more expensive for phone manufacturers to license Android (which we provide free of charge) than Windows Mobile; and even suing Barnes & Noble, HTC, Motorola and Samsung."

He said, "A smartphone might involve as many as 250,000 (largely questionable) patent claims, and our competitors want to impose a ‘tax' for these dubious patents that makes Android devices more expensive for consumers."

But he holds out hope that the Justice Department will ride to the rescue like the US Cavalry - the way it did with the Novell patents - and slap Microsoft and Apple's hands for buying what Drummond seems to suggest are "dubious" patents off of Nortel.

"This anti-competitive strategy," he blogged, "is...escalating the cost of patents way beyond what they're really worth. Microsoft and Apple's winning $4.5 billion for Nortel's patent portfolio was nearly five times larger than the pre-auction estimate of $1 billion. Fortunately, the law frowns on the accumulation of dubious patents for anti-competitive means - which means these deals are likely to draw regulatory scrutiny, and this patent bubble will pop."

Hey, come to think of it, Google bid $4.4 billion for them but that's okay because Google's motive is defensive. "We're also looking at other ways to reduce the anti-competitive threats against Android by strengthening our own patent portfolio [InterDigital?]. Unless we act, consumers could face rising costs for Android devices - and fewer choices for their next phone."

Of course, if Oracle's Java patents turn out not to be "dubious," the judge in the case has already indicated that Google is screwed as a result of its playing fast and loose with somebody else's property.