Cloud Computing: FTC Slaps Google’s Wrist over Patents, Little Else
January 5, 2013
The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that it had come to a couple of so-called "landmark agreements" with Google that end the agency’s big, almost two-year investigation into the antitrust complaints made against the search giant. The deal absolves Google of stacking its search results in favor of its own properties and thereby stifling competition, a winning decision for Google that has Microsoft ticked off. Alas, Redmond hoped Google would be embroiled in a major antitrust case.
One of the two consent decrees forbids Google to seek injunctions from the federal courts or the International Trade Commission against "willing licensees" of the standards-essential patents (SEPs) it acquired in its $12.5 billion takeover of Motorola Mobility, patents that are supposed to be available to all takers on fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms…
The wording leaves room for Google to argue that the targets of its attempts at sales and import bans are not willing licensees and – although the consent decree ostensibly holds Google to Motorola’s FRAND pledges – apparently the only way to resolve such an impasse is for the would-be licensee to take Google to court to have the FRAND terms set, since Google and Motorola have demanded ridiculously high terms at least from competitors like Apple and Microsoft…
Read more from the source @ http://www.sys-con.com/node/2500922