Rockstar, which now manages 4,000 former Nortel patents, filed a lawsuit against Google and other mobile manufacturers including Samsung, HTC, Huawei, and four others for allegedly infringing Nortel patents.
The lawsuit was filed by the Ottawa-based licensing firm in the U.S. District Court in Texas. Rockstar Consortium bought Nortel Networks in 2011 for $4.5 billion and is jointly owned by mobile manufacturers Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Ericsson and Sony.
According to a Reuters report, Google was accused of infringing seven patents which it used in its search engine related to advertising. The patent is called ""Associative Search Engine." A representative from Google refused to comment about the issue.
Google went head-to-head with Rockstar in bidding for Nortel in 2011 beginning $900 million and as much as $4.4 billion but the latter won.
"Google placed an initial bid of $900,000,000 for the patents-in-suit and the rest of the Nortel portfolio. Google subsequently increased its bid multiple times, ultimately bidding as high as $4.4 billion," the filing states. "That price was insufficient to win the auction, as a group led by the current shareholders of Rockstar purchased the portfolio for $4.5 billion. Despite losing in its attempt to acquire the patents-in-suit at auction, Google has infringed and continues to infringe the patents-in-suit."
Meanwhile, as PC World reports, Samsung also infringed seven patents of the "Navigation Tool for Graphical User Interface." The said technology is used by Apple's archrival to support its Gallery, Email, Maps, and Browser functions. Aside from the navigation patent, the company is also being sued for another patent called "Internet Protocol Filter" that allows the device to become a mobile wireless hotspot by sharing its Internet data.
HTC is being sued for the same patents that Samsung allegedly infringed.
Rockstar is expecting compensation from the damages caused by Google for the past and future use of the infringed patents, according to the complaint.
