Google and patent consortium Rockstar have agreed to a settlement to its long-standing war over patent infringement litigation. Will it mean a savings to customers?
Terms were not disclosed, according to Reuters, which reported the settlement.
Rockstar, a shell company constructed to acquire patents - and pursue litigation to defend its patents - is comprised of Apple, Sony and Microsoft.
In 2011, Rockstar paid a staggering $4.5 billion to acquire Nortel's portfolio of thousands of patents, with some dating back as far as 1997 and some as current as 2011. Google was outbid for the cache by $500,000.
Canada-based Nortel went bankrupt in 2009 but held more than 6,000 4G and advanced technology patents, according to ArsTechnica.
As soon as Rockstar's acquisition was complete, it sued Google for infringement on a variety of products. Google is known for its search engine but has made an impressive business out of the Android line of products.
Google's lawyers said the acquisition of the patents was purely to launch an attack against upstart Google, whose domination of search is formidable and whose entry into the hardware market with its Android technologies has been a challenge to competitors.
Wired reported on the Rockstar company and CEO John Veschi told the tech publisher that with all the patents it owns, "Pretty much anyone out there is infringing."
Corporations starting shell companies to investigate patent infringement is nothing new and represents the undercurrent of business that keeps tech attorneys in business.
