From Gigaom, a post noting that patents may end up killing or seriously damaging the Android smartphone iphone competitor (like patents apparently killed SED TV):
Can patent licensing fees derail the Android express?
By Ryan Kim Jul. 8, 2011, 4:00pm PT 8 Comments
The Android Express has taken Google and a number of manufacturers on dizzying ride to the top of the smartphone market. But with Android’s patent strength increasingly under fire and companies lining up for their share of licensing fees, is the platform headed off the tracks? Read More »
(h/t Vijay Boyapati)
See also Microsoft Demands Samsung Pay $15 Royalties For Every Android Phone It Sells.
See also: How Apple Led The High-Stakes Patent Poker Win Against Google, Sealing Ballmer’s Promise, which notes: “If Microsoft is able to convince (or force) Samsung to pay this fee as well, it’s likely lights out for Android as a free OS, as Tom Krazit rightly points out on paidContent. … As a result — pending government inquiries surrounding the antitrust implications of all of this — Android remains very vulnerable. Perhaps more so than ever.” This is one case where I wish antitrust law would be enforced (see comments to this effect in my posts Patents, Prescription Drugs, and Price Controls and When Antitrust and Patents Collide (Rambus v. FTC); see also IP vs. Antitrust; State Antitrust (anti-monopoly) law versus state IP (pro-monopoly) law; The Schizo Feds: Patent Monopolies and the FTC; The Schizophrenic State; Intel v. AMD: More patent and antitrust waste.
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