Profitable patents
FOSS Patents - a blog that focuses on technology patent litigation - has had another busy week.
Yesterday it alerted the rest of the world to the news that Oracle has put a precise figure on the amount of money it expects Google to cough up for the alleged infringements by Android on Java patents. $2.6 billion will be what it takes to make Oracle feel better about all this naughty infringement.
The figure has come to light because Google had been going through some kind of obscure legal process apparently designed to keep a calculation of the amount of damages sought out of the proceedings (FOSS explains it in far more detail here). This has obviously failed, and in an Oracle filing - embedded below, one more courtesy of FOSS - it names the figure of $2.6 billion.
This is comprised of a $0.9-$1.4 billion upfront payment and between 10 and 15 percent of Google advertising revenues on Android phones, which will probably run until 2021. If we say 15 percent of all Google mobile advertising revenues for ten years amounts to $1.5 billion, then we're talking total revenues of billion a year, which seems a bit low, but what do we know?
FOSS was also quick to spot another development in the growing dispute between Apple and Samsung. It's Samsung's turn to escalate things, it seems, and it has filed a complaint with the ITC (International Trade Commission) requesting it conduct an investigation of Apple regarding "Mobile Electronic Devices, Including Wireless Communication Devices, Portable Music and Data Processing Devices, and Tablet Computer."
Apparently this means it's looking for an import ban on such devices, and if the ITC decides to conduct an investigation it may take a year and a half to come to a conclusion.
Oracle Opposition to Google Daubert Motion